


Lost In Transition

by meyari



Category: Smallville
Genre: Drug Use, M/M, Prostitution, Rough Sex, Triggers, Whump, strangulation (non-erotic)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-11
Updated: 2011-10-11
Packaged: 2017-10-24 12:37:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 25,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/263544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meyari/pseuds/meyari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Clark disappeared instead of standing as Lex's best man for his wedding to Helen, it gave Lex the strength to realize that Helen wasn't what he wanted in life. After breaking up with Helen, Lex went after Clark to find out what was wrong. Unfortunately, by the time he got to the Kent farm it was already too late. Tracking Clark down and setting things right took Lex in directions he'd never expected when the boy he'd known changed into someone else.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lost In Transition

  
Banner, icon and dividers created by the wonderful iamaslashaddict!

"No, I will not come back to the mansion," Lex snapped at Helen. His fingers clenched on his steering wheel as he listened to her objections over the cell phone he'd set to hands-free. "Yes, I understand. I understand better than you do, Helen. No, I told you. It's over. The wedding is off. Yes, I'm serious!"

He shouted the last sentence before he punched the off button, annoyed by her absolute insistence on continuing this farce. Lex had had second thoughts from the moment he'd gotten involved with Helen. As beautiful as she was, her morals rivaled his father's, and Lex was nearly one hundred percent certain that Helen was working for his father in a complicated plot whose purpose Lex had yet to discern. There was little love in his heart for her, though ample lust filled his loins. Marrying her would only serve to grant her a place in his life that she didn't truly deserve while driving away his one true friend, Clark Kent.

That revelation was why he was pursuing Jonathan and Martha Kent, who were pursuing their son, who'd apparently found it necessary to run off on one of his not-very-secret-yet-highly-dangerous missions instead of standing as Lex's best man for the second time. Despite driving at speeds that would get him arrested, he'd yet to catch up to the Kent's. Wrenching his steering wheel, Lex screeched around KTML-TV then down the road towards the turn to the Kent's farm.

Another corner let him see the Kent's truck far ahead of him or, more accurately, to see the cloud of dust as they drove up the lane to the farm. He sped up, fully intending to catch up to them. Perhaps if he did, he'd manage to catch Clark before he did something utterly stupid and dangerous.

Seconds later, Lex pulled his face out of the airbag, his ears ringing. His car had gone into the ditch, fortunately one of the shallow ones that was more a muddy spot than a true ditch. He wasn't sure what had happened but, when he looked towards the farm, there was a small mushroom cloud ascending towards the sky.

"Oh my God," Lex breathed.

He checked the car, which was still running but stuck, so he turned it off. Grabbing his cell phone, Lex jumped out of the car and dialed 911 while running towards Jonathan's old red truck, which was overturned and rocking gently on its roof. In moments, the operator was talking in Lex's ear, asking what his emergency was.

"There's been an explosion on the Kent Farm," Lex gasped while sliding to a stop beside the passenger door. "The Kent's truck overturned. I think they're both unconscious."

"I'm sending help now. Please stay on the line in case you need further assistance," the operator said with just enough alarm that Lex felt a tiny bit better about the way his hands were shaking.

"Hang on, I have to get Martha out," Lex said.

He dropped the phone and carefully eased Martha out of the truck. She was unconscious with her legs caught in the seatbelt, which seemed to have saved her from any serious damage.

Jonathan was hanging upside down, seemingly unconscious, too. As Lex freed Martha and pulled her out of the truck's cab, Jonathan woke with a start.

"Martha!" Jonathan gasped, obviously disoriented.

Lex caught Jonathan's wrist as he reached for his wife.

"She's okay," Lex told him. "Try to get yourself free, Mr. Kent. I'm pulling her off to the side in case the gas goes up."

"Lex?" Jonathan asked. He blinked as if he couldn't figure out what Lex was doing there. "What…?"

"I called off the wedding and followed you," Lex admitted. "Try to pull yourself out, if you can."

Lex grabbed his phone and explained what he was doing to the operator while carefully dragging Martha off to the grass on the side of the lane. The dust cloud of the explosion spread out over the area and began raining down over the farm. He thought he could see tiny traces of metal or meteor rock in the dust, but it was impossible to be sure.

"Is she all right?" Jonathan asked as he lurched toward his wife, falling to his knees beside her.

"I think so," Lex said. "Where's Clark? Mr. Kent, where's Clark?"

Jonathan stared at him for a long moment while clinging to Martha's limp hand, and then he was up and running for the farm. Lex cursed, tethered to Martha's side by both the paleness of her face and the operator still talking in his ear. It felt like mere moments later, but was probably much closer to several minutes when he heard sirens approaching the farm.

Sheriff Adams leaped out of one of the cars, waving to her deputy and the ambulance to come to his side. Time truly slipped out of Lex's control during the confusion of listening to the operator, Sheriff Adams, the ambulance worker, and the deputy all talking at once. Eventually he pulled back, away from Martha, and shut off his phone.

"Do you know what happened?" Sheriff Adams asked.

"No, I don't," Lex said. "I'm sure you saw my car in the ditch. I was following the Kents."

"Where's the boy?" Sheriff Adams asked suspiciously. "And Jonathan?"

"I don't know," Lex repeated.

He pushed past her and headed up the lane towards the house and barn. The storm cellar was gone. It had obviously been the location of the explosion. Jonathan was up by the house, with Clark by his side. From the look on their faces they'd had some sort of argument and, where Jonathan was obviously furious, Clark looked stunned.

"Mr. Kent," Lex called, "They're getting ready to transport Mrs. Kent to the hospital."

"Stay here," Jonathan snapped at Clark. "We'll talk later."

Clark nodded, his eyes drifting back to the crater that had been a storm cellar until a few minutes ago. When Jonathan stormed past Lex, Sheriff Adams went with him, already asking questions about what had happened. Lex listened with half an ear to the incredibly unbelievable explanation about some sort of fermented concoction exploding next to fertilizer that they'd stored.

"Are you all right?" Lex asked once he'd reached Clark's side.

"I'm fine," Clark muttered. He wouldn't meet Lex's eyes and rubbed his chest as if he'd been hurt somehow. "Where's Helen?"

"It doesn't matter," Lex said. He put a cautious hand on Clark's shoulder, noting that there was dust in his hair and along the curls of his ear but nothing on his clothes, which meant that he must have changed sometime after the explosion. "Are you sure you're all right?"

"I'm fine!" Clark snapped as he abruptly pulled away from Lex. "I need to check on the animals. That must have spooked them badly."

Clark stormed off towards the barn, leaving Lex to sigh and study the crater. Automatically, he calculated how much fertilizer it would have taken to create an explosion of that size and noted that there was no way that a sufficient quantity could have fit into the storm cellar. It was yet another mystery about the Kent family that Lex knew he shouldn't explore, so he'd likely never learn the true explanation.

Thankfully, Clark appeared to be more or less okay, though obviously quite upset about what had happened. Rather than wait for Clark to calm down, Lex returned to his car and asked for help to get it out of the ditch. Sheriff Adams made a point of ordering Lex to go get checked out once she saw that his airbag had deployed.

Instead of going straight to the hospital, which would be difficult given the damage to his car, Lex carefully drove back to the manor. To his dismay, most of the guests were still there. Getting rid of them took hours that Lex didn't want to spare but, eventually, he managed to kick everyone other than Lionel and Helen out.

"Lex, we really should talk about this," Helen said as he headed for the garage to get a different car to drive into town.

"There's nothing to talk about," Lex snapped at her. "Pack your things and be gone by the time I get back. I shouldn't have let this go as long as I did. You're a lovely woman, Helen, and our time together has been quite pleasant but I see no reason to marry you."

"You proposed to me!" Helen snapped. The expression in her eyes reminded Lex that she'd had her own classes on anger control. He stepped further away from her just in case.

"I did," Lex admitted. "It's a bad habit, I must admit. While you're an entertaining lover, it turns out you're not who I want to spend my life with after all."

"What brought this on?" Helen asked. "Was it something I did? Lex, please. I just want to make things right again."

Her expression was an almost perfect facade of confused hurt, but Lex could see Lionel lurking in the background and the angry frown on his father's face was enough confirmation of complicity for Lex. Even if they weren't plotting together, that didn't mean that she wasn't up to something on her own. Lex had been ignoring her carefully manipulative behavior ever since they'd hooked up at the anger management class, but no longer.

"I've learned to trust my instincts, my dear Helen," Lex said in his iciest tones, "and they've been screaming at me for a while. I've also learned to trust certain individuals' judgment about the people in my life. There's a long list of them who've expressed doubts about you more than once."

"Them?" Helen asked with enough venom that Lex sighed. "You mean 'him'. Clark Kent, right?"

"Also his parents, Chloe, Pete, my head of security," Lex said ticking off the names, "my father though that's usually a ringing endorsement of an individual, several of the maids, the cook, the gardener, Sheriff Adams…."

Sadly, he wasn't exaggerating about the length of the list. Helen glared at him and then spun on her heel. The sound of her heels echoed down the hallway like a series of gunshots aimed straight at Lex's bulletproof heart. Lex shrugged and went the other direction without a single regret.

The hospital was quiet when he arrived, or as quiet as hospitals ever were. One of the nurses passed Lex his favorite mug full of coffee exactly to his taste, sharing a wry smile that he had his own. One of the doctors checked him out and quickly pronounced him fit, to neither of their surprise. Cleared, Lex went in search of the Kents and found Martha in one of the in-patient rooms, attached not only to the standard monitors but also to a fetal heart tone monitor.

"She's pregnant?" Lex murmured to Jonathan, who was pressed against the observation window and watching his wife.

"Yeah," Jonathan said. His voice was husky with unshed tears. "We've been keeping it a secret. Martha's lost several babies before. They're not sure the baby's going to make it."

"I hesitate to offer," Lex said knowing Jonathan's pride, "but I could bring in a specialist to look at her and the baby. Maybe there's something that can be done to ensure that they're both okay."

Jonathan swallowed hard but he nodded once, the gesture so jerky that Lex wondered if it had hurt him to make it. Lex pulled out his cell phone and immediately called his staff, directing them to bring in someone from Metropolis who could take care of Martha and her baby. It only took a few minutes before he received the callback that someone would be there within the next four hours. Some of the dreadful tension went out of Jonathan when he heard the news.

"Has Clark been here?" Lex asked after a few minutes of shared silence watching Martha breathe.

"Been and gone again," Jonathan snapped, all of the tension and then some returning to him. "I'm heading inside, Lex. You'll excuse me."

"Of course," Lex said, even though Jonathan had already headed inside the room and shut the door in his face. "That was odd."

Rather than stay, Lex rinsed out his mug and headed back to the farm. He knew that Jonathan and Martha would be okay. The hospital staff would tend to them in his absence. Lex was more worried about Clark home alone at the farm, especially given how shaken he'd been when Lex had last seen him.

The farmhouse was dark and quiet when Lex drove up. The Kent's truck was still there, though someone had turned it upright. Someone, probably Sheriff Adams, had put warning tape around the crater. Lex could hear the cows lowing in the barn and, when he checked on them, he frowned to see that they hadn't been milked or fed. Lex took off his jacket and set to work tending to the cows, glad he remembered how to work the automatic milking system the Kents used. Once they were taken care of and the milk had been hauled to the house, Lex searched in earnest for Clark.

After Lex determined Clark wasn't in the loft, his room, the house, or anywhere on the farm, Lex performed a more intensive search, discovering that Clark had taken some of his clothes, a spare pair of shoes, his leather jacket and the motorcycle he'd purchased during that odd incident where Lex had thought that Clark was doing drugs.

Outside in the barn, Lex stared at the dropcloth that had covered the motorcycle, fingering his cell phone. When he called Jonathan's number, obtained less than legally quite some time ago, Jonathan answered immediately.

"Who is this?" Jonathan demanded.

"Mr. Kent," Lex said and was quite aware of how strangely his voice came out, "is Clark at the hospital with you?"

"No." The sheer alarm in Jonathan's voice turned it into a question.

"He's not here," Lex sighed. "The cows hadn't been taken care of and the motorcycle is gone. I'm going to check with Chloe but…."

His words trailed off as Lex tried to find a way to finish the sentence that didn't include the thought that Clark had run away from home. Given Martha's condition, Lex didn't want to believe that Clark would have done so. The silence on the other end of the line wasn't reassuring, though. For a long moment, Lex and Jonathan listened to each other breathe while absorbed in what had to be virtually identical worried thoughts.

+++++

The first picture was one that Lex had gotten straight from Clark's hand two years earlier. It showed Clark smiling at the camera, bright, cheerful, and as ordinary as a gorgeous sixteen-year-old farm boy could be. Clark looked innocent, sweet and enthusiastic, which made sense as the picture had been taken by Martha at one of the Saturday farmer's markets in town.

Lex sighed and studied the next picture with a frown. Taken several days after Clark's disappearance from Smallville, the picture showed a far different young man dressed in a tight black T-shirt that revealed his nipples and jeans that were all but painted on his body. He had two girls tucked under his arms, both laughing at something that Clark had said. The picture had been part of a surveillance system recording in a club that Clark was far too young to enter legally. Apparently he'd gotten in through a combination of the girls, his looks, money, and intimidation that seemed utterly out of place in the person that Lex had known.

"What happened to you?" Lex murmured to the Clark in the picture.

He could track the changes that had happened in the weeks since Clark's disappearance. His staff had found a series of pictures of Clark, some blurry and indistinct, some as clear as if Lex was standing face to face with Clark, that charted his transformation from farm boy to something much more dangerous. One day after the picture with the girls there was one showing Clark systematically getting drunk. Two days after that, Lex had a picture that was so blatantly seductive with an older man that it made Lex shudder every time he saw it. The thought of Clark kissing another man that way both horrified Lex and roused his libido.

Picture after picture followed, charting Clark's fall into the dark side of life to be found in Metropolis' clubs and seedier establishments. From the reports that Lex's people had gathered, Clark had started out as a party boy, moved into light prostitution, found the less than legal BDSM scene available in the slums, and then moved into crime. The latest reports had hints that Clark might have become a hired killer, or at least a hired thug, for Morgan Edge. He was certainly a thief as Lex had multiple police reports of someone matching Clark's description and abilities stealing from banks and ATMs.

"I should have thrown the wedding guests out on their ears," Lex grumbled as he sorted the pictures back into sequence and then tucked them away into the folder where he kept them.

Getting rid of his last two 'guests' had been an exercise in frustration that had lasted entirely too long. It had taken Lex over three weeks to eject Lionel from the manor and that had only been accomplished by moving back to Metropolis to his penthouse. Lionel had promptly followed though he'd backed off quite a bit once they were back in the city, which finally allowed Lex to focus on Clark without arousing Lionel's interest.

Lex still wasn't sure that he'd managed to get rid of Helen. She was still sending him messages and calling despite the fact that Lex had set his email to refuse her messages, had blocked her cell phone, and had filed a restraining order against her. Yet another stalker added to the list that his lawyers kept. At least he'd managed to get her evicted from the mansion without resorting to the police. Keeping her out had taken legal action, but Lex had hopes that the move to Metropolis would put enough distance to keep him safe from her now-obvious ill intentions.

"Sir?"

"Yes?" Lex asked.

His aide, Andre, sighed and came in with another envelope of pictures. "He's been sighted again, sir. I'm afraid that this time there were injuries involved."

Lex winced as he took the envelope. So far Clark had managed to stay somewhat under the police's radar, other than the robberies. A ski mask had been worn during those so there was no concrete proof it was Clark behind them. Clark's latest offense was a bar fight that resulted in three men being admitted to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.

"Damn it, I need to find him and stop this," Lex snarled. He slapped the pictures of the brawl down on his desk and glared at the stack of pictures. "The best way is to locate his hideout. It won't be something cheap. He has access to enough money now for a relatively high-class apartment or a condo. Modern, nothing traditional, probably all glass and steel with leather furnishings."

"Um, yes sir," Andre said, noting Lex's instructions on a little pad of paper he pulled from his pocket. "How…?"

"That would be the exact opposite of what Clark grew up with," Lex sighed. The anger drained away, leaving behind sick worry and frustration. "He's trying to lose himself, Andre. He won't go near anything that reminds him of home."

"Good point," Andre said with a nod of comprehension. "I'll run some searches for condos matching the description that sold in the correct timeframe."

"For cash," Lex added. "He would have paid in cash."

They exchanged concerned looks, both of them knowing the cash would have been illegally obtained, and that it was very likely that the former owner of the condo or apartment would have known and possibly concealed the transaction's details. Clark had been playing with fire from the very beginning. Paying in dirty cash for a condo would have immediately tagged him for Morgan Edge's attention.

A day later, Lex had the address for Clark's hideout. It was, in fact, a very modern condo with a separate walkup that let Clark come and go without being observed. He sent several people to discreetly watch the place and, within an hour, Clark was spotted leaving the condo and driving off on his motorcycle. Lex immediately called Jonathan and Martha.

"Lex?" Martha said when she answered the phone. She sounded as if she'd been crying again though it was hard to tell over the phone. "Have you heard anything?"

"I've located his apartment," Lex told her. "I'll be heading over soon to see if I can talk him into coming home. I just wanted to let you know. How are you three doing?"

Martha laughed quietly. "The baby and I are fine. I've felt much better since I started taking those vitamins. The doctor still wants me to take it easy. Jonathan's worried, of course. He said last night that he was grateful for the help you got us."

"All I did was put your name in at the community college for interns to help on the farm," Lex said. He rather doubted that Jonathan had said anything of the kind but he was grateful for Martha's words nonetheless. "Mr. Kent is a very knowledgeable farmer and AgriSci students could learn a lot from him."

"True," Martha said with obvious pride in her voice, "but it isn't something that we would have thought of. So thank you for that. They're a great help, even if it seems like they follow Jonathan around like puppies."

Lex laughed at the image, as did Martha. The last time he'd visited the farm he'd gotten the same impression of the young people studying with Jonathan. They couldn't spare a lot of time every day but several times a week Jonathan had extra hands on the farm to help get things done. At the same time he was teaching the students the realities of farming rather than just what came from books. In Lex's opinion, it was a good thing for both sides.

"Be careful when you confront Clark, Lex," Martha sighed. "He's… very strong."

"I know," Lex said. It was the closest either of the Kents had come to acknowledging Clark's powers to date. "He's not quite in his right mind, I think. I'll be very careful, I promise. I know something about being that out of control."

"I'm sure you do," Martha said so softly that Lex could barely hear her despite the phone pressed against his ear. "Let us know how it goes."

"I will. You take care of yourself," Lex said.

Martha laughed and they said their goodbyes. It was a strange thing that Lex was finally earning a tiny bit of respect from the Kents. He'd always admired them, thought of them as the perfect parents, but Jonathan's loathing of Lionel Luthor had extended to all things Luthor, including Lex. Clark's abrupt departure from their lives had somehow brought Lex more respect and consideration than he'd ever received before.

"I'm going over," Lex told Andre. "Make sure that my people keep watch but don't allow them to interfere. Clark's already in a highly unstable mood. I don't want him confronted by anything that might frighten or upset him. He knows me and knows I won't hurt him."

"Are you sure, sir?" Andre asked. "Those injuries…"

"Clark would never hurt me," Lex declared.

Andre didn't look convinced, but Lex knew it was the truth. Everything that had happened between the two of them since they'd met under a bridge informed Lex that Clark was essentially a gentle soul, albeit one that was confused and hurting after the explosion and the fight with Jonathan. Lex was fairly certain Clark had caused the explosion, and both Clark and Jonathan had been in shock, so their argument wasn't as surprising as it might have been otherwise. Clark had been acting out since then, and Lex was determined to end it and bring his friend back home where he belonged.

Clark's apartment was gleaming, modern, and so impersonal that Lex could hardly tell that Clark lived there. The refrigerator held some food - mostly takeout containers - but nothing that showed any signs of being natural or homemade. There was no milk, nothing for sandwiches or dinners and no pie, which was the real shocker. It was as though Clark only came there to change clothes.

Lex couldn't find any of those clothes or shoes strewn about, not even in the bedroom with its far-too-large bed. In addition, there wasn't a single book or newspapers, no dishes to be washed, nothing at all to give the apartment a sense of individuality. He'd hoped that there would be some sense of Clark in the place but the cold sterility of the rooms only emphasized how much Clark had changed since he ran away.

Rather than dwell on the apparent emptiness of Clark's life since his departure, Lex settled onto the couch to wait for Clark's return. There were business matters he could, should, attend to but Lex had no interest in them. "Who have you become?" Lex murmured as he gazed out the picture window. The view of Metropolis was spectacular, not that Lex paid any mind to it. "And why?"

 

There was no answer, not that Lex expected one.

Clark returned to the apartment an hour later, striding into it and then pausing when he saw Lex lounging on his white leather couch. Lex stayed calm and relaxed despite the increase in his heart rate; there was no need to make the atmosphere any tenser than it had to be.

"What are you doing here?" Clark demanded in a voice that sounded much older and much colder than Lex was used to. His eyes narrowed as he glared at Lex.

"Not even a 'hello, nice to see you'?" Lex asked in what he'd intended to be a teasing tone but sounded much more serious than he'd wanted.

Clark snorted and tossed his keys on an area table by the door before slinging his jacket onto the kitchen table's glass top. "Oh hey, so nice to see you, Lex. How have you been? I've missed you ever so much."

"Ouch," Lex sighed and shrugged away the inner pain at Clark's caustic delivery. "It appears you've been taking lessons in sarcasm."

"I had a great teacher," Clark said. He made an ironic little bow in Lex's direction before throwing himself into the lounge chair opposite Lex. "So what the hell are you doing here, Lex? I certainly didn't invite you."

"I can't be worried about you?" Lex asked.

The conversation had rapidly turned into something like his frequent verbal sparring matches with his father, with Lex switched into his father's normal role, but it felt as though there was a minefield between them with both of them braced for the inevitable explosion. Granted, there had always been a lot of tension between them, which Lex fully took half the responsibility for, but Clark had never been so hostile before so quickly.

"Yeah, right," Clark drawled. "Did Mom and Dad send you?"

Despite his attempt to appear unconcerned, a hint of the old Clark emerged when he mentioned his parent's names. He looked younger and worried about them, especially Martha.

"No, I sought you out on my own," Lex replied. "I was worried about you, whether you believe it or not."

"I bet your lovely new bride's delighted by that," Clark snorted. In what had to be an unconscious gesture, Clark played with the large class ring on his finger, the stone gleaming ruddily against his tanned skin. His smirk at Lex's reply appeared more a grimace. "You running off to find me on your honeymoon must have her positively pleased."

"I didn't actually marry Helen," Lex said with a quiet sigh. "I think I dodged another bullet on that front. As much as I hate to admit it, my father may have been right about her. I had to arrange for a restraining order to keep her away from me, but she's still stalking me through email and texts."

"Why didn't you marry her?" Clark asked with enough suspicion that Lex allowed a bit of annoyance to show.

"If you must know," Lex snapped at him, "it was because you, your parents, my cook, my father, the gardener, several of the maids, my aide, the head of security, and more than a few others offered me their congratulations as if they expected to hear that I'd been executed on the honeymoon. It turns out those suspicions were valid. The plane we were planning on taking to the Bahamas is in need of surprise maintenance for damage that doesn't appear to be accidental, and my pilot confided that he'd been bribed by Helen to hide the damage, though that piece of information only surfaced after some… prompting."

Clark laughed and let his head rest against the back of his chair for a moment. He looked the very image of male sexual decadence when he lifted his head to grin at Lex.

"You sure know how to pick them, Lex," Clark chuckled.

His eyes rested on Lex's crotch, watching as Lex reacted to his changed body language and attitude. After a moment Clark licked his lips and smirked at Lex as if he was something tasty to eat that he'd only just noticed. Only Lex's need to keep his dignity kept him from crossing his legs to hide the way his groin tightened at the sight.

"Maybe you're just sabotaging yourself, Lex," Clark purred. "Would make sense considering the women you've gotten involved with."

"I take no responsibility for Desiree," Lex said with a deceptively casual wave of his hand. "Her powers made her irresistible to any male. Except you, for some reason."

"And you've always wondered why, haven't you?" Clark asked in a much harsher tone. His eyes went spectacularly red for a moment, flashing nearly the same color as the class ring on his finger.

"Clark, what's happened to you?" Lex asked. His erection wilted under Clark's glare and the weight of his worry for Clark.

"That's not my name!" Clark shouted.

He bolted to his feet and glared down at Lex as if he wanted to beat Lex into the floor. The rapid shifts of mood, the hostile attitude, the increased libido; all of it made Lex think that Clark was on some sort of drug, though he had no idea which one it could be. Lex had been out of the drug scene for long enough that there could be any number of chemical cocktails influencing Clark's mind, most of which were too new to be illegal and thus probably untraceable.

"What is your name then?" Lex asked as he slowly stood. "What are you calling yourself now?"

"Kal," Clark said.

He was still glaring, all but vibrating with apparent anger. Braving the fury, Lex stepped closer and rested his hand on Clark's chest. Something that felt like a scar made itself known to Lex's fingertips in the brief moment before Clark grabbed his wrist and yanked his hand away. His grip was far too tight, and Lex knew there would be bruises ringing his wrist tomorrow, but he also knew they'd fade quickly enough that it didn't matter.

"Kal, then," Lex said with a calm nod that was the exact opposite of Clark's anger. "Why did you leave? Why all the drastic changes, Kal?"

"What the hell does it matter to you?" Clark demanded.

Anger battled with fear in his expression but, despite the emotions flickering over his face, it seemed as though the flicker of red in his eyes was most closely related to lust. The instant Lex put his free hand on Clark's other arm the red came back as did the look of lust.

"You matter to me," Lex said. "You've always mattered to me. You're my only friend."

"You don't want friendship," Clark said in a voice that was pure desire, want, need. His red eyes seemed the perfect expression of Clark's new identity as Kal, especially once he pulled Lex close and wrapped a large hand around Lex's hip. "I know what you want. I always knew. You wouldn't say it, and I was too stupid and shy to admit it, but I always knew what you really wanted from me, Lex."

"Awfully sure of yourself, aren't you?" Lex asked. He deliberately put a challenge into his voice and expression, even though he knew that he was playing with fire.

The kiss that followed made Lex's head spin, not only because Kal kissed like he was trying to consume Lex's soul but also because they moved abruptly from the living room into the Spartan bedroom. They moved so quickly that Lex's inner ears protested and his head spun. It wasn't unpleasant when combined with Kal's ferocious kisses and hands tearing at his clothes, but then Lex didn't think he'd object to any sort of kisses from Clark or Kal.

"Very sure," Kal murmured after kissing Lex until they were both hard as a rock and Lex felt like every muscle in his body had gone limp. "You want me."

"So do you," Lex countered through his panting. Kal didn't look as though he was breathing hard but he did look flushed and excited.

"Too many clothes," Kal grumbled.

Lex batted Kal's fingers away when he tore the top three buttons off Lex's shirt. They stripped while kissing, breaking apart only long enough to pull Kal's shirt over his head and to kick off their respective shoes. Kal growled when Lex's fingers traced the huge ropey scar that spanned Kal's chest. He pushed Lex backward and down - hard enough that Lex bounced on the mattress - then he followed, pinning Lex's wrists to the bed as he bit and licked everything he could reach on Lex.

"Fuck!" Lex gasped after one particularly hard bite. "Not that hard!"

"You love it," Kal murmured. He kissed the livid mark and grinned down at Lex with lust-reddened eyes.

"Not if you make me bleed!" Lex snapped at him.

"Mmm, I bet you'd love to bleed for me," Kal murmured. "I'd tie you up and run a knife over this pale, perfect skin. I know how you heal. You'd be fine in a couple of days. I could cut you, beat you, and you'd love every minute of it because it was me doing it to you."

"Do not make me bleed," Lex said in a much more serious tone, his muscles stiffening under Kal's weight.

Kal pulled back and stared at Lex before frowning, possibly at the way Lex was shaking beneath him, at the tiny, almost but not quite controlled tremor that wracked Lex's entire body. After a moment, Kal shrugged and nodded almost absently.

"Fine, no blood," Kal said. "But I am fucking your ass so hard that you scream."

"God!" Lex gasped against a sudden surge of lust that batted aside old nightmares and triggers from his wild days.

Lex's throaty groan prompted an earthy laugh from Kal, who promptly flipped Lex over onto his stomach for extended foreplay in the form of finger fucking while Kal bit and held Lex down. Kal's strength was incredible, which added to the experience as well as skirting the edge of some of Lex's worst memories. Kal seemed to be quite aware of when he was pushing Lex too far because every time Lex came close to the edge of panic Kal eased off.

"Nice," Kal murmured once he finally pushed into Lex. "Very nice."

"Oh fuck," Lex groaned. "Kal, Kal, Kal, more!"

"Don't worry," Kal laughed. "I'll give you what you want."

He did. Even with Lex's thoroughly misspent youth, Kal came up with positions that Lex had never tried. The first round was hard, fast and brutal, to the point that Lex was sobbing for air and cursing with what little breath that he could get that Kal had better not make him bleed. The second was slow and as inevitable as the tides. Kal took him as though he intended to fuck Lex for the rest of eternity. The third and final round was surprisingly tender, which was very welcome given how sore and tired Lex was by that point.

"Fuck," Lex sighed after they were done and rested spooned together.

"Hope that's a good fuck," Kal snickered while running his fingers over the wetness staining Lex's stomach.

"It was a superlative fuck," Lex said and then laughed with Kal.

Sleep didn't seem like a good idea but Lex didn't fool himself that he was going to be able to stay awake. All he could hope was that Kal -Clark - would still be there when he woke up. There was so much that he hadn't been able to find out yet. Hopefully, Clark would be more willing to talk after Lex woke up.

+++++

A whimper woke Lex. It was close to midnight when he checked the clock. Moments later, a second whimper had Lex up and out of the bed, looking, but Clark wasn't in the bedroom or bathroom. When Lex entered the living room, the whimpers turned into a moan that would have made Lex's hair stand on end if he had any hair. Clark was curled into a ball on the couch, rocking in the reflected light from the streetlamps outside. He'd put on pants and had a shirt lying on the couch next to him, but his chest was bare.

"Clark?" Lex asked. "Kal?"

"Go away," Clark gasped. He sounded like the old Clark, not the new Kal that had fucked Lex so thoroughly a few hours ago.

"Let me help, Clark," Lex said soothingly.

He took a step closer and then froze when the moans that Clark was making turned into pants of pain then a scream that sent Lex back several steps into the wall. Light blazed from the scar on Clark's chest, lighting him up as though he was a torch. It blazed brighter and brighter until Clark's chest shone like the sun.

Clark's scream filled Lex's ears, finally driving him away from the wall and back to Clark's side. Along the way, he kicked something small and light. When he looked down he saw Clark's red class ring skitter away, under the coffee table. Lex knelt next to Clark and waited as the light receded leaving Clark collapsed on the couch, panting for breath.

"The ring," Clark gasped as the light began to rise again. "Where's the ring?"

"Ah, wait...." Lex groped under the table and found the ring. "Here it is. Why do you need the ring?"

"Damn it, Lex, just give it to me!" Clark snapped.

He was shaking as he snatched the ring out of Lex's hand. When Clark slid it back onto his finger Lex clearly saw a surge of _something_ shimmer up Clark's arm. The rising glow and sizzle of Clark's brand faded away, leaving nothing behind but a ropey scar on his chest and a million questions that Lex suspected that he'd never have answered.

"It blocks it," Lex whispered. "Not totally, but it blocks… whatever it is."

"Yeah," Clark said in his abrupt Kal voice. "I can't wear the ring constantly but most of the time it keeps my fucking father from torturing me into submission."

"Jonathan?" Lex asked, his voice much sharper than he'd intended. "Jonathan Kent's doing this?"

Clark, Kal, rotated his head to glare at Lex scornfully before rolling his eyes. "Of course not. My real father, my birth father."

"Tell me where he is and I'll do everything in my power to stop this," Lex promised.

The thought that someone could do this to Clark, that Clark might have been tortured for quite some time by an unseen and unknown person, horrified Lex. It was bad enough that Lex had to deal with his father's interference and 'lessons'. There was no way that Lex would allow Clark to undergo anything similar, though truth be told it appeared that Clark's father was worse than Lionel. Lex had never been literally tortured.

"There's nothing you can do," Kal snorted. He pulled his shirt back on then stood and pushed Lex away, heading for the door.

"Kal, I mean it," Lex said as he caught Kal's elbow to keep him from leaving. "I'll do anything I can to help you."

"I told you," Kal snarled as he easily jerked his elbow out of Lex's grip. "There's nothing you can do. There's nothing that anyone can do. I just have to deal with it."

"And you're doing such a lovely job of that," Lex snapped back at him. Worry for Clark pushed him to use a tone that probably wasn't wise with Kal. "Running away, committing crimes, prostituting yourself, drugs, drinking. This isn't dealing with the problem, Kal. You're just hiding from it. The only way to deal with it is to face it, to face him. Let me help!"

Kal laughed so nastily that Lex backed off a step. His eyes flared red again but it didn't seem as if lust was driving Kal. Instead, it seemed like anger had filled him to the brim. There was a sudden jerk of moment and a whoosh before Lex found himself slammed up against the wall with Kal's hand fisted around his throat.

"Oh sure," Kal said while squeezing hard enough to make Lex worry about a broken neck or crushed windpipe. "Like you're doing such a great job facing your father down. How often does he call you in to scold you for some imagined failure, Lex? How often do you kiss his ass every week? You think I don't know about it? Come on, everyone knows you're his whipping boy. There's no way you can help me when you can't even get off your ass to help yourself!"

Lex scrabbled at Clark's fingers, trying to get enough air to protest, to disagree, to keep from passing out. His vision was graying out at the edges, which told Lex that Clark was squeezing hard enough to shut off blood supply to his brain. As he felt unconsciousness rising up to claim him, Lex mouthed 'please' and 'I'm sorry' while running his fingers over Kal's cheek in a shaky caress.

Blackness consumed him moments later. When he woke an indeterminate time later, Lex coughed and wheezed as he tried to breathe. His throat felt like it was a solid mass of bruises. It felt like his back was covered with them as well, new damage added to the various hickeys and other bruises that Kal had inflicted during sex.

Lex struggled to his feet, unsurprised to find that Kal was long gone, and wobbled his way into the bedroom. His cell phone was in his jacket pocket, but bending over to pick it up made him pass out again. When Lex came to for the second time, he stayed on the floor as he texted his private doctor Toby and his security crew for help. There was no way that he was going to try to call them when his throat hurt so much that Lex doubted he'd be able to speak a single word.

'What happened to you, Clark?' Lex wondered while carefully pulling his pants on.

The question was focused on more than Clark's departure and current location. Lex knew he had to find out who Clark's real father was and how he was attacking Clark. Unfortunately, there was only one source for that information and Lex could only hope that Jonathan and Martha would be more open to his questions and assistance than Kal had been.

+++++

The storm cellar was nearly rebuilt when Lex drove into the Kent's driveway, though it had yet to be buried. The wall wrap was up and the roof had shingles, and it looked to Lex as though Jonathan was close to ready to fill the crater in. Lex shook his head as he recalled the devastation, sighing as he carefully got out of his car and then leaned on the roof as he worked to breathe through the mild effort.

Jonathan came out of the barn and frowned at Lex as if he was an unwelcome intrusion into their lives. "Lex, what the hell happened to your throat?" Jonathan asked as he strode over, completely destroying Lex's automatic assumption about the frown.

"It's a long story," Lex whispered. "Is Martha here?"

"Yeah, she's inside making supper," Jonathan said.

Lex nodded and headed for the kitchen door, Jonathan at his side. Jonathan's frown grew as he saw how creakily Lex moved. From the expression flittering around Jonathan's face, he was uncharacteristically worried about Lex. It wasn't unjustified but Lex was uncomfortably certain that worry was going to turn into anger and dismay by the time Lex was done explaining his encounter with Kal.

"Lex, I didn't expect… What happened to your throat, young man?" Martha's words were more concern than question as she came over and bustled Lex into one of the kitchen chairs.

She grumbled about people hurting boys while she brewed tea, adding honey and lemon to it, while Jonathan grinned at her and Lex tried very hard not to laugh. Given his throat and the bruised ribs he'd acquired when he passed out the third time back at the penthouse, it wouldn't be a good idea. Lex felt as broken as he had a couple of times back in school when bondage scenes had gone terribly wrong.

"Thank you," Lex whispered as he took the tea from her.

"Now what exactly did happen to you?" Martha asked.

Lex sighed, rubbed his throat, and then took a sip of the tea before answering. From the expressions on Martha and Jonathan's faces they'd already realized that it had to be Clark, but that didn't mean that Lex wanted to tell them. He didn't want to believe it himself but, one way or the other, he had to save Clark from his birth father's torture so delaying the inevitable was pointless.

"I located Clark in Metropolis," Lex whispered because saying anything louder wasn't going to happen. "Clark is… he's being tortured apparently on a daily basis. There's a huge brand on his chest that he claims his birth father somehow affects, causing him a huge amount of pain. He's wearing what I think is a red meteor rock ring to block the effects, but it's… I think it's affecting his mind somehow. He changes into someone else when he puts it on, someone much wilder. Even so, he can't wear the ring constantly so the torture continues."

"That…!" Jonathan growled and glared over his shoulder towards the storm cellar or maybe towards something more distant.

"Clark is the one who hurt you," Martha said with calm certainty.

"I'm afraid so," Lex admitted. "I think his temper got the better of him. He didn't seem violent until his mood shifted abruptly. There has to be something that can be done to save Clark from this torture and I'm determined to do it. That means I need to find his birth father and make him stop. "

Jonathan and Martha exchanged looks that seemed to combine worry with protectiveness, though he could see a bit of fear mixed in as well. Given Clark's obvious extraordinary powers, Lex could well understand both the fear and the worry. The odd part was that when Martha turned back to him the protectiveness seemed to be for Lex, not Clark.

"Lex, you can't find him," Martha said as she covered his hand with both of hers. "He's… it's complicated. We do know where his birth father is..."

"Sort of," Jonathan muttered and made a face.

"...but there's no way to stop him," Martha continued as if she hadn't been interrupted.

"I hate to sound like my father," Lex said, "but there are always ways to influence people. If you know where he is, tell me. I'll get the police involved, the government, whatever it takes to save Clark. No, I won't tell them about Clark's abilities." Both of their faces had gone white at the thought of the police. "I'd never do that. But Clark's torture must be stopped."

"How did you?" Jonathan stared and then stopped when Lex gestured towards his throat. "Oh. Yeah. Um."

"I knew well before that," Lex sighed and then had to sip the tea when he nearly started coughing. Once the urge to cough until he passed out for a fourth time subsided, Lex continued. "Clark was never terribly good at hiding his abilities, Mr. Kent. I never said anything for fear my father would find out."

Jonathan went so pale that he looked as though he'd be the one to pass out. Martha let go of Lex's hand and took her husband's in a grip that turned both of their knuckles white. The level of fear they showed explained to Lex where Clark's terror of telling people had come from. He'd learned it at home from the parents who rightly feared someone coming to take their son away.

"You can't do anything," Jonathan told Lex after a minute of silent, longtime married people conversation with Martha. "I'll have to go confront him, make that bastard stop this."

"Jonathan!" Martha gasped. "No!"

She clutched Jonathan's arm, preventing him from standing. Lex frowned, just as concerned as she was. If Clark's birth father was willing to torture his own son, what would he be willing to do to the man Clark regarded as his Dad? The consequences of such a confrontation ran through Lex's mind, ranging from simple threats to violence to Martha widowed and their unborn child losing its father before it could be born.

"He's dangerous?" Lex asked. His words seem to startle them, as if they'd forgotten that Lex was there.

"Very," Jonathan said. "He's been nothing but trouble in Clark's life since the moment he was activated."

Lex cocked his head and stared at Jonathan, who flushed under his regard. "Activated?"

"He's… not exactly a person, Lex," Martha sighed as she glared at Jonathan and made him wince. "It's a long story."

"Mrs. Kent," Lex said as firmly as he could with his damaged throat, "I'm willing to listen for as long as it takes. I know you have no reason to trust me, but I want to help. Clark… Clark is my only true friend. I want to help him come home to where he belongs."

The sex that they'd shared flitted through Lex's head, but he did his best to keep the memory off his face. Although he had no doubt that Jonathan would strongly disapprove, Martha's position was harder to determine. Lex wasn't going to upset her by explaining exactly what he'd done or what he knew Clark had been doing before Lex found him.

Neither parent looked as though they wanted to explain, but Martha's firm grip on Jonathan's arm prevented him from leaving to confront Clark's birth father. Lex waited as they thought about it, hoping that they would trust him but not expecting it. If they decided not to, it would be easy enough to follow Jonathan to wherever Clark's birth father was hiding, or perhaps been hidden given the comment about his having been 'activated'.

"You were here for the meteor shower, Lex," Martha said in what appeared to be a complete non sequitur.

"Yes," Lex replied. He nodded encouragement for Martha to continue.

"Well, meteors weren't the only thing that came down that day," Martha said. "There was a ship, a very small ship."

"Dixon was right?" Lex asked, shocked enough that he spoke too loudly and set off a coughing fit that made his vision gray out by the end of it. "Sorry. Ow."

"You are going to be all right, aren't you?" Martha asked. She'd supported him with gentle hands, as had Jonathan, through the coughing fit.

"I'll be fine in a few days," Lex told her.

"Days?" Jonathan asked, staring at Lex's neck. "You're lucky you're not on a ventilator with bruises that bad."

"I was overnight," Lex said and took a careful deep breath. He could understand Clark's fear of talking about his powers. Lionel's angry beatings whenever people found out about Lex's rapid healing were entirely too vivid in the back of Lex's mind as he continued. "I don't need it anymore. By tomorrow evening the bruises will be gone for the most part. I heal… quickly."

That revelation rocked both of them back. Martha nodded slowly as if Lex had just explained something that had bothered her for quite some time while Jonathan just looked stunned. He'd obviously never noticed how quickly Lex healed from the various attacks on his person over the last couple of years. Lex waved all of that away and ignored the frown that appeared when Martha noticed the fingerprints around his wrist.

"Clark was in the ship?" Lex asked.

"Yes," Martha said. "The ship was inactive for years, until we, well you, found a small octagonal disk. It was the key to the ship. Once it woke up, activated, the download of Clark's birth father began making demands of Clark. We tried to protect him but obviously we failed."

"The ship was somehow tied to the Kawatche Caves," Jonathan continued for Martha while rubbing her back comfortingly. "There's some sort of artificial intelligence in there. It's summoned Clark several times, always to bad results."

"Where's the ship now?" Lex asked to distract himself from the stunned realization that Lionel had been right, that something incredible did exist in the caves. He'd thought his father was obsessed about nothing but apparently Lionel had been right. That made him very nervous. If Lionel knew about the advanced technology in the caves, how much of a stretch was it to think that he'd discovered Clark's abilities and tie to them? It made certain reports of Lionel's old 'friend' Morgan Edge's interest in Clark much more worrisome.

"Um, that's what blew up our storm cellar," Jonathan said with a grimace and a shrug. "I don't know how Clark did it, but he found a way to destroy the ship."

"But that didn't stop the AI," Lex sighed. "No wonder he looked like he was in shock when I got here. He must have been at ground zero for the explosion."

"I um, wasn't exactly kind when I told him to get cleaned up," Jonathan sighed. He sat down, guilt written all over his features. "Or later when he came to the hospital. I didn't realize he was being hurt by Jor-El."

Lex noted the name while leaning forward to study Jonathan and Martha. "If the spaceship was a remote terminal for the system in the caves then it makes sense that he could still affect Clark. Mr. Kent, you can't go confront this... Jor-El."

"Clark is _my_ son, and I'll be damned if I'll allow Jor-El to hurt him!" Jonathan snarled while standing. Martha grabbed his hand, her eyes wide in a white face.

"And you have another child who needs you," Lex said as firmly as he dared given his throat. "Mrs. Kent's baby needs his father too. If you confront Jor-El, you could end up injured or dead. You can't do it to her and you can't do it to the child. You can't do it to Clark, either. Do you really think that Clark would ever return if he knew that you'd been killed trying to stop Jor-El?"

Jonathan winced as if Lex had just slapped him, though Martha threw Lex an intensely grateful look as she dragged Jonathan back down into his chair. When she turned to Lex her expression was so fierce that Lex shifted and eased back a little. He truly didn't want her to get angry at him. Lex suspected that she would be twice as dangerous as his father ever wished he could be.

"You're not going to confront Jor-El either, Lex," Martha told him. "Not until those bruises heal up. If there's a risk of Jonathan being hurt then there's a risk of you being hurt. You're not going until you're healthy, just in case something does happen."

"But Clark…" Jonathan murmured and then sighed.

"He's already been at this for weeks, honey," Martha said. "I know Lex has to have him under surveillance. Clark hasn't truly hurt anyone, has he?"

"Other than me, no," Lex said respectfully. "And I have to admit that I did goad him a little bit. My temper got the better of me."

"It gets the better of all of us, Lex," Martha said with a reassuring nod. "Wait until you're healed then we'll tell you how to interact with Jor-El, not one minute before."

Lex laughed and then had to rub his sore throat and ribs. He supposed that he should have expected Martha's objection, but at least he'd managed to keep Jonathan from charging off to confront the AI alone. Rather than answer the unspoken question about his bruised ribs, Lex leaned on the table again and picked up his cooling tea.

"What can you tell me about Jor-El?" Lex asked. "The more information I have on his pattern of behavior and goals, the more likely it is that I'll be able to deal with him properly."

Martha nodded, still looking as ferocious as a mother bear protecting her cubs. "I suppose that makes sense. First you have to promise you won't go haring off to deal with him before you're healed." It wasn't a request.

"Mrs. Kent, I promise I won't go off the instant you tell me anything." Lex said, completely sincere in his intentions. "I do prefer to make any and all necessary arrangements up front and have backup plans in place. Besides, my doctor would skin me alive if I did anything to exert myself for the next few days."

That made both Jonathan and Martha smile. As Martha went to get them coffee, Jonathan started explaining what little they knew of Jor-El and Clark's home world. Lex listened carefully, determined that he would find a way to save Clark. Although his inner child listened enraptured to their descriptions, it was the grown man who asked questions because Lex needed to be ready when he went to confront Jor-El in the Kawatche Caves.

Lex let out a slow breath as he pulled up outside of the Kawatche Caves. He stayed in his car for a long few minutes, bracing himself for what he knew was coming. From everything that the Kents had told him, Jor-El would be highly unwilling to talk to Lex, and even more unwilling to help him. The odd demands Jor-El had made in the past made Lex wonder whether the AI had programming bugs or the alien it had been designed after had truly been that cold and uncaring.

All that Lex and the Kents had to judge Jor-El's character by were those inconsistent directives and Clark's torture. In so many ways, Jor-El reminded Lex of his father at his worst, as well as recalling Lex's studies of Hitler, Stalin, and other megalomaniacs from history. The thought that Clark might be related to such a person was horrifying.

"No reason to delay any longer," Lex murmured to himself. "A week and a half is long enough to wait."

Getting out of his car, Lex headed into the caves. They were just as dark and dusty as they'd been the last time he'd visited during his father's investigations into them. Getting rid of his father's researchers had been difficult, but the last couple of months had allowed Lex to remove Lionel as guardian of the Kawatche Caves and reinstate himself. Considering what he knew about the caves now, Lex was even more thankful that his legal stratagems had worked.

The central pillar that Lionel had found so fascinating was now just as fascinating to Lex. It appeared to be the true core of Jor-El's AI. Lex ran his fingers over it, pondering whether to use the meteor rock he was carrying in a small lead box or to try reason first. Reason won since Lex didn't think that threatening the AI would be ultimately helpful.

"I know you're here," Lex said softly. "The Kents told me about you, Jor-El. Clark, your son Kal, is out of control. If you've learned anything from studying humanity then you know that he's going down a path that will lead to his destruction. My father is obsessed with him. Morgan Edge, one of the greatest criminals of Metropolis, wants him. Soon even the government will be aware of his abilities and will target him for acquisition. If any of them capture Kal, he'll never be free. I want to stop him, bring him back safe and under control. Talk to me, Jor-El."

The cave echoed his words back at him once, twice, three times, before they faded into silence. Lex waited, his fingers resting on the center octagonal depression. Nothing happened for long enough that Lex was convinced that he would have to use the meteor rock on the AI but, as he reached into his pocket for the small lead box holding his chunk of meteor rock, the markings around the depression lit and began to move in circles around the central octagon.

Lex backed off several steps, watching and waiting for whatever was to come. The marks settled into a new formation and light erupted from the pylon, engulfing Lex in a shimmering, roaring nimbus of light and power. He stayed still, refusing to move or show fear even though he couldn't help calculating how much power was contained in the light show around him.

"Kal-El must return for his training," a deep voice said with absolutely no inflection whatsoever.

"You're Jor-El?" Lex asked.

"I am Jor-El, the true father of Kal-El," the AI replied.

Lex bit his tongue to hold back the retort that no true father would torture his own son. "I see. Do you know who I am?"

"I am aware of this world and its denizens," Jor-El said. "Kal-El's past interactions with any of them are now irrelevant. His training must begin so that he will fulfill his destiny."

"What is his destiny?" Lex asked, rather annoyed about the 'irrelevant' perhaps more because it reminded him of Lionel than of what it might say about Jor-El and Clark's birth race.

"Kal-El was sent to this world to guide it to a better state," Jor-El said as if reciting from a text that someone else had written a very long time ago. "The yellow sun of this world is optimal for making him a god among men. Here he shall rule with a firm hand as he recreates lost Krypton."

"That might not be as easy as you think," Lex said.

The energy surrounding Lex crackled and shifted as though it was a river spun into a tube, swirling motion and coiling threat. Whether the AI was truly a download of Jor-El or not, Lex knew that he would be opposing it in the very near future. Anything or anyone that cast Clark as an alien overlord had to be stopped at all costs.

"You have fulfilled your function in Kal-El's destiny," Jor-El continued as if Lex hadn't said a word. "He will return for his training soon."

"He seems more likely to destroy himself than to return willingly," Lex commented. "If you're testing his readiness to rule, then I would say that he's failed the test. Kal isn't mature enough to rule wisely, though he does show a great deal of promise. Frankly, given a few more years, I suspect he'd be quite incredible at it."

Lex was rather amused to find that he wasn't lying. Clark would make a terrific ruler when he'd gotten over the moping, guilt and self-doubt that plagued him.

"His potential is too great for you to comprehend," Jor-El replied. "This was merely the first test to determine if he was ready to begin his journey."

"Resisting preemptory commands of obedience demonstrates he has the willpower to stand by his decisions," Lex finished for Jor-El. "An auspicious start. However, the continued use of the brand in an attempt to force Kal-El to return is instead driving him to more and more dangerous activities to escape. Even animals will go to extremes to avoid capture, and Kal is anything but. He views your past interactions as threats to be escaped instead of appropriate tests of his reactions. I believe that a more delicate approach may convince him to return rather than continuing to rely on brute force."

The energy around Lex crackled and shifted in a way that suggested surprise. Lex knew he was probably overly anthropomorphizing the AI, but he needed to ascribe some level of emotion to it to be able to deal with it. The thought of attempting to manipulate a truly emotionless creation that obeyed nothing but its programming command protocols horrified Lex so badly that his scalp prickled with sweat.

"More delicate approaches have failed," Jor-El finally said.

"Perhaps you need an intermediary?" Lex suggested. "Kal knows me. He knows that I do not mean him harm. I have protected him, even killed for him in the past. If I go to him then I believe I can eventually talk him into coming back here. However, he's too strong and too fast for me to corner him until he listens. I nearly died in our last encounter."

"I am aware," Jor-El said with the first hint of emotion that Lex had heard from the AI, though it wasn't clear to Lex whether there was approval or shame in that cold voice. "If you believe in what you claim, you must retrieve him yourself. My methods will work given sufficient time. I have no need of your assistance although by my calculations your suggestion could speed his return substantially."

"I'm glad that you agree. I would like to bring him back but, as I said," Lex replied, "I can't. He's too powerful for me."

"What are you willing to sacrifice for Kal-El?" Jor-El asked.

"What are you willing to offer?" Lex asked. "The price may be disproportionate to the gain."

Lex could almost feel approval coming from the AI at his careful response. It seemed to value intellect and logic over all emotion. Clark's two fathers appeared to be at opposite ends of the emotion and logical spectrum. Given how emotional Jonathan had been when they'd talked last, Lex suspected that he would have charged in and made demands that would have been very poorly received by Jor-El.

"It is possible to grant a human Kryptonian powers for short periods of time," Jor-El explained with a faintly approving tone of voice that felt almost overwhelmingly warm given the lack of emotion in its voice before. "A normal human would experience significant damage to their heart and lungs, as well as severe pain, if subjected to the process. Most humans die from it, though some live for several years before their bodies give out. Given your mutation, you are eminently suitable for the treatment. My projections say that you should not experience any substantial detrimental effects."

Lex forced his shoulders to relax, desperately grateful that he and Martha had overruled Jonathan. While Jonathan would have been perfectly willing to do it, the price for him would have been entirely too high, especially given the baby on the way.

"I see," Lex said. "What effects will I experience?"

"There will be pain which fades as the powers establish themselves in your body," Jor-El answered. "The powers will endure for twenty-four hours, at which point you will collapse in exhaustion. Your healing will ensure that you recover quickly and will not experience the heart and lung damage that a normal human would endure."

"That sounds acceptable," Lex said. "I should be able to bring Kal here within twenty-four hours if I have abilities equal to his. Do it."

The energy swirling around Lex abruptly shifted. One streamer snapped into his chest and Lex screamed involuntarily as pain ripped through his body and mind. It felt as though his entire body was being altered. His skin crawled as though something was forming in the subcutaneous layers, his stomach cramping as his legs gave out, unable to support his weight as the muscle fibers twitched and cramped while they grew in strange new ways.

As quickly as the pain hit, it faded. Within moments, Lex felt better and moments after that he felt stronger than he ever had. His whole body thrummed with energy. Lex laughed and carefully stood, staring at his hands in awe as the knowledge of what he'd gained and, more importantly, _how to use it_ , surged through him. Something in his eyes shifted and he was abruptly seeing the bones of his hand. He could hear everything for miles around.

It took what felt like a decade for Lex to sort through how to control all of the abilities that he'd been given but, it was actually only a few moments, less than a minute all told. Lex let out a breath and then nodded once. His plan should work as long as he could convince Clark to listen to him. No matter what he'd told Jor-El, there Lex had no intention of forcing Clark to submit to his birth father's AI. However, together they had a very good chance of destroying the thing before it killed Clark with its tortures or drove him into the wrong hands.

"Very good," Lex said to Jor-El. "I'll have him back here within twenty-four hours at the latest."

The light disappeared, which Lex assumed meant that the interview was over. He returned to his car and drove back to the manor thinking it was odd to drive when he could feel that flight was possible It was necessary, however, because Lex wanted to ensure that the people his father had watching him had no clue of his sudden enhancements. Given his father's obsession with the caves, it would be a very dangerous thing for Lionel to know what Jor-El was capable of.

Lex parked his car, told his people that he was going to work in his study and didn't wish to be interrupted. Quickly setting up his desk as though he were doing just that, Lex murmured, "I'm coming, Kal," then quite deliberately opened a window to 'get some air in the room' before speeding through the window and into the air on a path to Metropolis.

 

+++++

Finding Kal was simplicity itself. With his enhanced hearing, it only took a couple of seconds after finding Clark's voice for Lex to home in on the sound of Clark's heartbeat. It was a hair faster than a normal human's but the double-thud of it seemed somehow different, as if the ventricles were of different sizes or the atriums and valves functioned in a slightly different fashion. Lex pushed that conjecture out of his mind as he closed in on Kal.

Night was just falling in Metropolis, though given the lights that filled the city it never got dark the way it would in Smallville. A rave in an abandoned warehouse on the edge of town was already in full swing, full of teenagers and young adults drinking, dancing, and having sex in the darker corners of the rooms. Lex saw more illegal activities taking place as well but ignored them. He had no cause to throw stones when he'd done all of that and more during his wild years.

Kal stood at the bar, sipping something colorful while watching the dance floor with an expression that hovered between bored and haughty. His black shirt was skin tight and his jeans looked as though they would cut off the circulation of a lesser man. The lights from the dance floor flashed over his ring, making it send up ruby sparkles as though a tiny strobe was mounted on Kal's hand. Lex saw the instant Kal noticed him because Kal's bored expression disappeared into an appraising smirk that took in Lex's charcoal slacks, black turtle neck, and lack of bruises.

"Surprised to see you here," Kal shouted over the pounding music when Lex slid up next to him by the bar. "How's the throat?"

"Fine. Healed up with no issues at all," Lex replied, nodding to the barkeeper to give him the same as Kal. He got some mixed concoction that tasted fruity with a kick like a mule, but Lex barely felt it. "I was thinking of round two, actually."

Kal grinned at that, licking his lips before downing his drink. "I can get behind that. This is boring the hell out of me. Let's get out of here and go somewhere more private."

Lex threw back the last of his drink and followed Kal out of the rave. When they stepped outside, his hearing flared for a moment, letting him hear most of the city for a deafening moment that made his head ring. Kal didn't seem to notice Lex's flinch, which was probably a good thing. The more surprise Lex had the better, given Kal's temper.

"I can get us there faster," Kal offered as he grabbed Lex's elbow to pull him close.

The tug felt like a normal human tug but Kal's eyes went wide so it must have been much stronger than that. Lex smiled sadly and shrugged his free shoulder. So much for surprise, Lex thought as he allowed Kal to pull him close enough that Kal could squeeze his hip. It was obvious that Kal's grip was intentionally stronger than a human's but it still didn't feel as though it would bruise Lex.

"The fuck?" Kal asked.

"Jonathan wanted to go to Jor-El to get help to stop you," Lex told him, speaking quietly as a couple of girls went by with smirks for their apparent PDA, "but Martha and I stopped him. I went instead. He's a computerized version of my father, isn't he?"

"So you're on his side?" Kal asked, immediately leaping to the wrong conclusion.

"Of course not," Lex snorted. "I'm playing him. I'm on your side, Kal."

"Yeah, and I bet you told him the exact same thing," Kal snarled.

He shoved Lex away and turned to run. Lex grabbed for Kal's arm, realizing as he did it that Kal had gone into super speed. Unwilling to lose him so quickly, Lex automatically followed suit. The world suddenly turned into the most fascinating freeze frame that Lex had ever seen. Smoke hung perfectly suspended in the air above one girl's cigarette until Kal's elbow ran into it, and then it scattered like tiny marbles hit by an outside impactor. The cars on the road were frozen in place, allowing Kal to run through them with ease. After a moment that was probably less than one tenth of one second in reality, Lex realized that Kal wasn't able to fly. He grinned and took to the air.

Kal looked over his shoulder and grinned until Lex's movement in the air caught his eye. The words 'oh shit!' twisted Kal's lips as his eyes went wide with shock. He ran out of the warehouse district and back towards the heart of town. Lex followed his twists and turns easily, surprised to find that he enjoyed flying when he was completely in charge of everything that happened. Having risen past the wires that crisscrossed the street at the one story level there were practically no obstructions. It was simplicity itself to follow Kal above the power lines that crossed and tangled above the street.

It felt like a video game or watching a movie, though Lex could feel the wind whistling around him and he had to dodge pigeons frozen mid-flap from time to time. When Kal turned down a side street that had no wires, Lex seized the chance and swooped down to grab Kal around the waist. Lex hauled up and they flew straight up into the air, Kal's legs windmilling below them. The rushing wind of their passage masked most sound, so instead of hearing the curses falling from Kal's lips, Lex felt them echoing through his chest.

As they flew higher, Kal's legs stopped moving. He twisted and wrapped his arms around Lex's neck shortly before their circuit of the city took them over the top of the Daily Planet's gaudy globe. Lex grinned, pressed a kiss on Kal's lips that made Kal start laughing, and took them up to several thousand feet before allowing them to slow and hover in mid-air that they could hear each other properly.

"Well shit," Kal commented in a tone that implied that it was a minor event, although his pounding heart and wide eyes turned the tone into a lie.

"Haven't figured out the flying yet, have you?" Lex said with a huge grin. "I expected to find it quite terrifying but it's rather fun when you're completely in charge."

"And invulnerable," Kal snorted. "I'm sure crashing is a bitch."

"Let us endeavor to avoid that," Lex said in his best 'sage wisdom of the ages' voice.

Their shared laughter disappeared into a kiss that made Lex groan. They both had entirely too many clothes on, but it was far too public for Lex's tastes anyway. Lex granted it was next to impossible at several thousand feet, but he couldn't chance anyone seeing them or photographing them. The last thing that Lex wanted was to give his father, Morgan Edge, or the government more ammunition for taking Clark in for experimentation and exploitation.

"God, I want you so much," Lex moaned once they parted lips.

"Now?" Kal asked, his lips kiss swollen and his eyes a bit dilated.

"Not here," Lex said. "I won't do this in public. I won't give my father that sort of ammunition. Or anyone else."

"Picky," Kal snorted, though he did seem somewhat appreciative of the concern. "Not like everyone on the wrong side of town is oblivious to what I can do."

"Tell me Morgan Edge isn't aware, please," Lex begged.

Kal blinked and shrugged, obviously unable to say that. He raised an eyebrow as Lex started cursing and then frowned when running his fingers over Lex's scalp didn't stop the flow of invective. When Lex ran out of curse words in English and switched over to Japanese and German, Kal cocked his head and looked amused.

"Okay, so Edge knowing is bad," Kal said after Lex stopped. "Why? He wants to hire me."

"He works with my father," Lex said entirely too cuttingly for the erections that they still sported. "Damn it, he'd turn you over to Lionel in a heartbeat and then you'll spend the rest of your life being experimented on."

"Great," Kal drawled. "So I get to choose between being Jor-El's puppet, a lab rat, or being mousy little Clark hiding in the shadows and hoping no one hurts me."

"Absolutely not," Lex replied.

He knew he was glaring, but he couldn't help himself as he let them fall down to the top of a tenement in the worst part of town. It wasn't an ideal location, but there were fewer cameras in this part of town - none of the gang members in the area wanted to be photographed - and it was convenient for a quick discussion.

"I meant it earlier, Kal," Lex said once they had their feet on relatively solid ground. "I have these powers for the purpose of bringing you back to the caves. That's all I promised to do. What we do once we're there is entirely up to us."

"You're really planning on fucking him over," Kal laughed. "God, I forget sometimes just how twisted you really are, Lex. How do we do it?"

"I believe he's in that central pillar," Lex said. "If we destroy that then I think that he'll be destroyed too. If I'm wrong then using a couple of hundred pounds of high explosives should do major damage to the caves, though I do hate the idea of destroying the cave paintings. That would be pity, but weighed against the risk of you being forced to be some sort of alien overlord it's a small price to pay."

Kal stared at Lex with one of Clark's dumbfounded expressions on his face for a long moment. When it faded, Kal laughed and grabbed Lex, pulling him in for another scorching kiss. When Kal pulled at Lex's pants, Lex was strong enough to keep him from tearing the fabric, strong enough to take charge of the sudden sex.

Lex knocked Kal onto his back, pinning him on the tattered tar paper. The surprise move made Kal gasp and moan. The condition of Lex's clothes the previous time made more sense after Lex went to pull Kal's shirt up and accidentally tore it open instead. Losing his shirt didn't appear to bother Kal at all. He groaned and then shouted at Lex's bite on his nipple.

"Fuck!" Kal panted. "I felt that!"

"More?" Lex asked.

"Yes!" Kal replied with a shuddering moan as Lex repeated the bite slightly higher and left a hickey the size of Lex's thumb.

Leaving hickeys all over Kal's torso prompted whimpers from Kal and grins from Lex. It would be entirely too easy to get wrapped up in topping Kal, especially now that he had the strength to make Kal actually feel what was being done to him, but Lex was far too aware of time passing and the threat of Morgan Edge's people in this part of town. Still, Kal wouldn't let go until Lex opened his pants and stroked him into an orgasm that made Kal kick a hole in the roof.

"Oh God, more," Kal moaned once he was done.

"No, no time for that," Lex said.

"You have got to be kidding," Kal groaned. His head made things crack underneath it when he thumped it back onto the roof, but the tar paper held so Lex didn't see any splinters in his hair.

"Do you want to be free or not?" Lex asked while running his fingers over the brand on Kal's chest. "Time is fleeting, Kal. I don't have forever and Jor-El could take these powers away at any second."

Kal sighed and nodded reluctantly. Lex stood, brushed himself off and then helped Kal up. He pressed a kiss against Kal's lips, hoping that someday they would get another opportunity, though frankly he rather hoped that he'd repeat it with Clark. That Kal and Clark were aspects of the same person didn't matter. To Lex, they were different enough by now to seem like two separate people rather than alternate personalities for one person.

"You really think we can do this?" Kal asked in a very Clark-ish tone of voice.

"Probably," Lex said. "I think that we can, and the alternative is bad enough that I think it's worth the effort."

"Okay," Kal said as he tore his gaping shirt open the rest of the way and then tied the tails at his waist. "We might as well try. I hope you're right."

The swath of golden torso tempted Lex to move this to a private location for more sex, but too much was at stake. Lex offered his hand and then laughed as Kal took it and tugged him close. They took to the air, Lex in charge of their flight, though he could feel hints of Kal trying to make it work, and flew back towards Smallville at super speed. Come what may, Lex was determined to do his best to free Kal so that Clark could follow whatever path he wanted in life.

Lex didn't set Kal down until they were well inside of the entrance of the Kawatche Caves. There was too much ofgreat a chance of someone seeing them and that was the last thing that Lex wanted. Come what may, he was going to free Clark, not ensure that he was enslaved to someone else's desires. Kal looked around the caves and made a little noise that could be disgust or possibly worry. His expression was determinedly blank, so Lex wasn't sure which it would be.

"I really hate this place," Kal said while adjusting his ring on his finger.

"Understandably," Lex said. "Come on. Let's get this over with."

Kal stalked behind Lex, walking at his right shoulder about one pace behind. The feeling of the dark, dusty central chamber was completely different this time. When Lex'd been there previously it had felt dead and dry, like something that the ages had passed by. Now with Clark -Kal -accompanying Lex, it felt electric and alive. Lex could almost feel Jor-El watching them and could only hope that Jor-El hadn't been monitoring every word they said. The best case would be that Jor-El was as twisted as Lionel and he'd assumed that Lex was double-crossing Clark as planned.

"We're here," Lex announced. He still had the box with the meteor rock in his pocket but didn't pull it, hoping there wouldn't be a need for it since it would affect Kal too.

"Welcome, Kal-El, my son," Jor-El said in a tone that was anything but hospitable. "It is time for your training. You have done well, Lex Lu-Thor. It will be remembered."

One of the rock walls opened and blinding white light poured out of it. Lex cursed under his breath, putting one hand on Kal's shoulder to keep him from bolting either from the caves or towards the light. He hadn't expected there to be a secret inner chamber, though given everything that had happened so far, maybe he should have. Hiding a cave from his father's equipment was nothing compared to the powers that Lex had been given.

"You're welcome," Lex said dryly, "but you're assuming a great deal. He's not here to submit to you."

"No shit," Kal agreed. His arm was shaking slightly under Lex's hand. "There's no way I'm doing what you want, Jor-El."

The light pouring from the inner chamber changed, going from pure white radiance to a crackling sort of blue that made Lex think nervously of lightning bolts and transformers blowing up. Kal seemed to react in the same way because he took a step backwards and brought his fists up as if he could defend himself physically against the AI.

"We've already established that he isn't going to submit to your plans," Lex said to Jor-El. "That's why I was sent out, remember? He needs more data before he will submit, Jor-El."

"No more data is required," Jor-El announced. "This stubborn reluctance is irrelevant. Kal-El shall undertake his training. He will be remade into a proper Kryptonian. There is no need for him to be concerned about trivial human emotions or connections."

"So you're going to brainwash him into doing what you want?" Lex snapped.

He stepped between Kal and the glowing light. It was probably stupid, but there was absolutely no way that Lex would allow anyone to brainwash Clark. Jor-El's designs were no different from Lionel's mad schemes, except for the level of technology backing them up. The little lead box in his pocket was a comforting weight that gave him a tiny bit of courage as he fished it out.

"It is not brainwashing," Jor-El said in the most offended tone that Lex had heard so far.

"You'll take away his personality and replace it with one that you consider to be acceptable, yes?" Lex asked.

"Exactly," Jor-El replied.

"That's brainwashing," Lex said. "It's worse than brainwashing. You're as bad as my father, as bad as any of the people hunting Kal. I absolutely will not support this. You will not take Kal, not now or later."

This time when the light changed it was abrupt and violent. Something smashed into Lex's chest, flinging him across the cave and into one of the walls. The impact was hard enough that the air was driven out of his lungs and his head smacked into the cave wall. Kal shouted something that was consumed by the roar of the electricity.

Lex struggled to his feet, unsurprised to find that there was a head-sized dent in the cave wall. The streamer of energy kept pushing at him, but Lex was strong enough to force his way a couple of steps closer to Kal. When Lex tossed the little lead box to Kal, he caught it and turned back to the inner chamber.

"The pillar!" Lex shouted and pointed at the thing with its rotating glowing marks.

"He's inside that back room!" Kal shouted back.

"Start with the pillar, Kal!" Lex bellowed at him. "I think it's the CPU!"

Kal snarled but did as Lex directed. He staggered when he opened the box but was able to slap the chunk of meteor rock with its lead box against the central octagonal depression of the pillar. The light pinning Lex abruptly shifted to attack Clark. Lex darted in and let it strike him instead. The pillar shuddered for a long moment, but Lex could see that the effect wasn't close to what they needed.

He slipped free of the tentacle of light to slam his fist as hard as he could into the pillar. It shuddered harder but the strange distortion effect of the meteor rock was fading, leading Lex to hit it again. Kal shouted something wordless and hit the same spot that Lex had struck with his free hand. They exchanged looks and began hammering on the pillar as fast as they could. Every time Kal's red ring struck the pillar it set of ruby sparks of light that made the tentacles of light jerk around them.

It took one thousand, nine hundred and seventy three super-fast blows - that seemed to take an eternity when it was actually less than three seconds - before the pillar screeched and abruptly exploded into a shower of fist-sized fragments. The scar branded across Kal's chest disappeared along with Lex's powers as they were flung across the chamber.

Clark seemed to realize the loss immediately because he caught and wrapped himself around Lex to take their combined impact with the far wall of the cave. The impact was so forceful that blackness consumed Lex. His last thought was rage at his weakness at a time when Clark needed him as backup.

"Clark…" Lex gasped an unmeasured time later.

Dust filled the air so he couldn't have been unconscious too long. Clark's arms were still wrapped around them as if to protect him from everything that might happen. When Lex coughed at the dust trying to fill his lungs, Clark groaned.

"Clark?" Lex asked.

He rolled out of Clark's arms and cursed at the way his body ached. The pain that had marked his transformation into a super-powered being was back, added to bruises and eyes that watered from all the dust in the air. Clark looked as though he was as tired and sore as Lex. He blinked up at Lex in confusion.

"What happened to my ring?" Clark asked as he stared over Lex's shoulder.

"I don't know," Lex replied. "It was setting off sparks whenever you struck the pillar. Is it broken?"

Clark displayed his hand where the band had been crushed into something resembling modern art. The stone was gone, leaving behind nothing but bits of red dust embedded in the twisted metal. Lex shrugged and turned to look at the place where the pillar had stood. As the dust settled, a gaping hole in the floor slowly resolved into visibility. When Lex struggled to his feet, Clark followed, only to stop and lean against the wall of the cave.

"Are you all right?" Lex asked.

"I should be asking you that," Clark said. He looked Lex over and then smiled so ruefully that Lex blinked at him. "Um, really. You're…"

Lex looked down at his clothes and started chuckling. His slacks had torn in so many places that they looked as though they'd been run through a shredder, and they were barely held together by the seams. His shirt was so torn that it hung in scraps from his wrists, neck and waist.

"Hmm, I am rather tatterdemalion, I suppose," Lex mused. "Not a problem. They were old clothes. You're in much the same shape, you know."

"I'm used to it," Clark said as he finally stood up straight. "I've never seen you look anything less than perfect before."

"You certainly haven't seen everything yet," Lex said just archly enough that it prompted Clark to snicker at him.

They both turned to look at the inner chamber that had glowed so brightly before the destruction of the central pillar. It appeared dark except for a beam of light inside that seemed similar to the beam coming from the gap in the ceiling over their heads. When Lex hesitantly moved towards the entrance to the inner chamber, Clark caught his arm, keeping him from going forward.

"Um, Lex?" Clark said so nervously that it was obvious that he felt as off-kilter as Lex did. "I just...."

"I think thanks can wait until later," Lex said. A wry smile twisted his lips as he nodded towards whatever waited them inside. "We're not sure that Jor-El is gone, Clark. Save it until we're sure you're safe from his 'help.'"

"No, I…" Clark swallowed hard and then leaned over to press a feather-light kiss against Lex's lips. "I just… always wanted to do that. Doing it as Kal doesn't count."

Lex's wry smile widened until his cheeks hurt. He laughed and stepped closer so that he could kiss Clark far more seriously, noting that he tasted like dust and blood, with the faintest hint of something that reminded Lex of metal or stone. When they finally let each other go a timeless period later, Lex was so hard that his erection poked through the remnants of his pants and underwear. Clark grinned at the sight and laughed.

"Never mind," Lex huffed as he tried to adjust what was left of his clothes to cover his erection until it went down.

"Sorry," Clark snickered.

"Shall we?" Lex said with a nod towards the newly revealed inner chamber.

"I suppose," Clark said. "Do you think he's really gone?"

"I have no idea," Lex replied. "We'll have to investigate and see what we can find out."

The inner chamber was covered with more cave paintings that looked like writing. Overhead, there was a gap in the ceiling that allowed light into the chamber and supplied enough illumination to see what was there. It took Lex a few moments to realize that Clark appeared to be reading the foreign script on the walls. Clark paused on one patch of writing, resting his fingers on it while frowning. When Lex came over and stood by his side, Clark sighed and shook his head.

"Maybe we shouldn't have destroyed it," Clark said. "This…."

"You can read that," Lex said in a tone that turned the statement into a question.

Clark admitted something freely to Lex for the first time ever. "Yeah, I can. It's… there's so much here, Lex. It talks about things left behind generations before that can be great weapons or great tools for advancement, and the price to be paid for misusing them. And… there's just so much more!"

"We'll figure it out, Clark," Lex promised. "The explosion had to have been noticed. Can you get us back to your parent's farm or the manor without anyone seeing?"

"Um, yeah," Clark said with a gulp that looked like pure nervousness. "The farm?"

"They're your parents and they love you, Clark Kent," Lex said sternly, only to have Clark's lips start twitching, probably at the contrast between Lex's tone and his tattered appearance. "You need to tell them what's going on."

"I can't go home for good though," Clark protested. "I mean, Lionel knows about me and Morgan Edge and maybe the government. It's too dangerous. I don't want to bring anything bad down on their heads."

Lex nodded and rested a hand on Clark's elbow, which elicited a tentative smile. "We'll find ways to deal with Lionel and Morgan Edge. Your parents have been worried sick, and neither of us are decent enough to be seen in public. We need to go show them that you're okay, get cleaned up and dressed in something a lot less ragged, and then we'll figure out what to do next."

Clark nodded, glancing at Lex's groin with enough amusement glinting in his eyes that he seemed more like Kal than Clark.

"I suppose you're right," Clark said in a very amused Kal tone of voice. "At least you're not hard anymore. Oops. I take that back."

"Stop that!" Lex huffed at Clark as he tried to rearrange the remnants of his clothes again.

Clark laughed and scooped Lex up in his arms. "Sorry, we have to go now. I can hear people coming."

"Go," Lex sighed. "I'll just deal with it, though a quick stop at the manor for different clothes would be welcome."

+++++

Clark had taken Lex back to the mansion, for what felt like less than one second. It was long enough for Lex's clothes to be ripped off, new ones put into his arms and Lex to be scooped up again in a blur of motion that Lex only parsed out after the fact when he was set down gently in Clark's loft.

"There you go. Fresh clothes - as requested," Clark said. "You're really sure about this? I mean talking to Mom and Dad?"

"Absolutely," Lex said as he dressed as quickly as he could, thankful that the aches were already fading, though there were some bruises across his back that would bother him for a day or two.

The clothes were so typical of Lex's daily attire that he wanted to laugh: purple silk boxers, charcoal-black slacks with a matching jacket, a periwinkle button-down and a cream silk tie. Clark had even grabbed him black socks and a pair of perfectly polished shoes. Lex felt restored once he was dressed, though his lips were still twitching at Clark's choices.

"Am I that predictable about what I wear?" Lex asked as he knotted the tie.

"Oh yes," Clark said and grinned. "You really are. Of course, so am I. I really want my red jacket right now."

"Comfort clothes," Lex agreed with a sigh before turning to a more sober subject. "All right. You should know that your mother is still pregnant, Clark. I managed to get your parents to agree to her see a doctor I brought in. She's still a bit weak and the pregnancy is touch and go, but they're both holding strong. Your little sister is a fighter, thank goodness."

Clark's eyes went wide at the news. He reached out with shaking hands then rather gracelessly flopped onto his old couch. The reaction would have worried Lex, but Clark's expression went from stunned to amazed to delighted so fast that he might as well have been a searchlight of pure joy.

Lex chuckled and patted Clark's shoulder.  
"Now come on," Lex said. "We need to get into the house and let them know that you're okay. They are here, aren't they?"

"Ummm, yes," Clark said. He bounced back to his feet, still grinning broadly, and nodded. "They're in the kitchen. Super speed?"

"That would be best," Lex said. "We don't want anyone to know that we've been here."

There was a blurred jerk of motion that, once again, Lex barely registered as being picked up, carried down the stairs and into the house, and set down in the kitchen, before it was all over. Jonathan cursed and Martha gasped while Lex swayed and gave himself a moment to get used to being somewhere else entirely too fast. He had to admit that the rapid changes in venue had been much easier to deal with when he had Clark's powers.

"Clark!" Martha cried, launching herself at him for a desperate hug that made Clark whimper inside her arms.

"Son," Jonathan whispered while hugging both of them. His expression was grateful when he looked over Clark's shoulder at Lex. "Thank God, you're home!"

Lex gave the three time to hug and murmur tender things to each other, although he knew that Clark wasn't home to stay. It wasn't safe enough yet, not in the slightest. With Lionel aware of Clark's powers and Morgan Edge attempting to recruit him, Clark was far more in danger than he ever had been, but at least one of the major dangers to his survival had been dealt with now that Jor-El appeared to have been eliminated.

Lex had enough time to consider nightmare scenarios of Jor-El somehow managing to reconstruct himself from the rubble, as well as the lingering fear that his programming had resided somewhere other than the pillar that they'd destroyed, before Clark finally pulled away from his parents. His determined expression and attitude had more in common with Kal than Clark, and the change of behavior obviously worried Martha and Jonathan.

"I can't stay," Clark said. "I'm so sorry, Mom and Dad, but I can't. Lex and I managed to stop Jor-El...."

"Probably," Lex interjected and then shrugged at the disgruntled look Clark threw at him.

"...but I'm still in danger from Lionel and this guy called Morgan Edge in Metropolis," Clark continued as if Lex hadn't interrupted.

"Sweetie, whatever's going on is something we should deal with as a family," Martha said. Her hand betrayed her true feelings by resting on her swelling belly.

"If Luthor's a problem, why is _he_ here?" Jonathan growled as he jerked his chin at Lex, his earlier acceptance evaporating at the latest threat to his son.

"Because Lex saved me," Clark growled right back at Jonathan. "Dad, he saved my life. Jor-El was going to rewrite my personality, wipe me away and put someone else inside my body. Lex helped me stop it, helped me break Jor-El."

"Hopefully," Lex said and then laughed quietly at the even more annoyed look Clark gave him. "He was an alien supercomputer that was somehow coded into a cave, Clark. We truly have no idea what his capabilities were. I suppose it's a bit paranoid to consider that he might be able to regenerate himself, but I'd rather be prepared for the eventuality."

Lex's reminder made Clark shudder as if in alarm at the thought, a sentiment that Lex fully agreed with. Martha layered both hands over her stomach at the suggestion, while Jonathan had wrapped his arms around Martha as if to protect her from anything related to Jor-El's manipulations. When after the explanation, there was still a huge amount of hostility in Jonathan's eyes that Lex did his best to ignore. It had been there as long as Lex had known the Kents and would likely be there forever so there was no point in dwelling on it.

"That's… gah," Clark started to say and then stopped. "I really hope you're wrong on that, Lex."

"So do I," Lex sighed.

"Either way, I can't stay here," Clark continued with as firm an expression as Lex had ever seen on his face. "I won't endanger you guys."

"You're our son," Jonathan said, his voice thickened with emotion. "You belong here."

"I know but I can't stay here if it's going to put you, Mom and the baby in danger," Clark replied. "Be sensible, Dad. I've been gone all summer. If I come back now it'll cause trouble for you two and with the baby coming that would be worse."

Martha sighed and hugged Clark again. From the expression on her face, she knew that they had no hope of keeping Clark on the farm. Lex made a private resolution to make sure that Clark got home again sooner rather than later. There had to be some way that he could keep Clark out of his father's hands while letting him live on the farm with his parents.

When Martha let go of Clark, she turned to Lex with a determined expression that made him gulp and resist the urge to take a couple of steps backwards. He'd gotten used to Jonathan's disapproval, but Martha's protectiveness was something that he didn't think he could ever sufficiently prepare himself for.

"You'll keep him safe," Martha ordered. "I know you've helped us a lot, Lex, and I do appreciate that but you have to keep Clark safe."

"I'll do everything in my power, Mrs. Kent," Lex replied. "I suspect that my father knows about Clark's powers, though I doubt that he knows everything. I'm going to do everything that I can to ensure that he's put in jail. I… have a fair amount of information about illegal activities within LuthorCorp. Hopefully I'll be able to gather enough evidence to get him convicted for his crimes."

"I'll help," Clark said and then glared at Jonathan when he automatically protested. "Dad, Lex helped me so I'm helping him. Stop treating him like an enemy when he's not!"

"You've… changed, haven't you?" Jonathan said in a much more gentle, much more worried tone of voice.

"I think I've grown up a little," Clark said. "I don't know. I did a lot of stuff in Metropolis that I'm not proud of, but I do think that I've grown up some along the way."

He didn't look at Lex, but something about his expression reminded Lex of their night of sex and the kiss after Jor-El's destruction. Lex's response to those memories made him desperately glad that Clark had paused long enough to get Lex some clean clothes. The absolute last thing he wanted was to expose an erection to Jonathan and Martha Kent.

Fortunately, neither of the Kents appeared to be aware of Lex's reaction. They were focused on Clark, who truly did look more mature than when he'd run away. While Martha held Clark as if she could never get enough hugs from him, Jonathan cleared his throat and then put a hand on Clark's shoulder.

"You really think that you'll bring danger to your mother and the baby?" Jonathan asked quietly while his eyes begged Clark to say that it wasn't true.

"Yeah, Dad," Clark said regretfully. "I really do. I know you guys had to have watched the news while I was gone. I… kind of wasn't myself and well, a lot of people on the wrong side of the law know about my powers now. If they find out I'm connected to you, they'll use you against me - that's the sort of people they are. And yes, I know I should have been more careful. I just… I wasn't me."

"Literally," Lex commented, despite his intention not to interrupt Clark's discussion with his parents.

"What do you mean 'literally'?" Jonathan demanded. It seemed to Lex that his worry and anger over Clark's situation transferred directly onto Lex the instant he spoke.

"As I said when I last visited," Lex said with a little shrug. "Clark was using the name Kal and acting like someone else due to the red meteor rock."

"You told them about that?" Clark asked with a bright enough blush that Jonathan's anger melted into amusement.

"I did have to explain the bruises, Clark," Lex said and smiled wryly. "They were rather prominent."

"Oh. Yeah."

Clark went even redder, prompting Martha to chuckle and pat his hand before glaring over her shoulder at Jonathan. He seemed as intimidated by Martha's glares as Lex, which made Lex feel better about his reactions. When Martha turned back to Lex, he couldn't control a wince at her determined expression.

"You will keep us informed on where Clark is and how he's doing," Martha declared.

"Of course," Lex agreed. "I may be somewhat veiled about his actual location if we speak over the phone but I won't keep him from you forever. I fully intend for Clark to come home once my father and Morgan Edge have been dealt with."

"Good," Martha said. She left Clark's and Jonathan's sides to take Lex's hands, compelling him to look into her eyes. All he saw there was worry for him. "Lex, you've been a wonderful friend to Clark and very helpful to us despite Jonathan's attitude towards you. Thank you. I appreciate it, even if certain others in the household are stubborn about admitting that we needed the help."

Lex felt himself blush at least as brightly as Clark had. Praise, especially from people in Smallville, wasn't something that he was used to receiving. Martha's chuckle didn't help him control the heat blooming in his cheeks, either. Behind her, Jonathan looked like he wanted to protest, but a fierce glare from Clark made Jonathan back down for at least the moment.

"And no saying that anyone would have done it," Martha said when Lex opened his mouth to say exactly that. "You know as well as I do that most people would have done no such thing."

"Far be it for me to disagree with you, Mrs. Kent," Lex laughed helplessly. "You're welcome and thank you."

Clark beamed and then sighed. "We should probably go. The longer we're here, the more chance there is that Lionel will realize what's happened."

"You call us, Clark Jerome Kent," Martha said as she grabbed him and hugged him one more time.

"I will, Mom," Clark promised. "You take care of yourself and my little sister, okay?"

"Absolutely," Jonathan said loudly enough to drown out Martha's protest that she was fine. "I'll make sure of that."

Clark laughed with Lex at Martha's huff of annoyance. Lex couldn't help but feel better now that Clark had reconnected with his parents. There were still a great many things to be dealt with but, for now, they were better prepared to deal with the remaining threats to Clark's welfare. Hopefully, once Lionel and Morgan had been eliminated, things could go back to normal.

Lex barely allowed himself to believe that the new 'normal' would include more of the kisses that he'd never dared to hope for before all of this began.

"I feel like I should be doing something," Clark complained as Lex let himself into Clark's hiding place in Metropolis. He stood at the wide bank of windows that led out to the balcony and stared out across the city, frowning. "I should be out there helping."

"It's not safe, Clark," Lex sighed. "We've discussed it. You agreed that it wasn't a good idea for you to be seen in public."

The apartment wasn't as large as Lex's penthouse or as modern as Clark's condo but it was a decent size. While the neighborhood wasn't the best, it was quite secure in that Clark's new neighbors were very nosy and quite prone to contact the authorities at the slightest hint of anything strange happening. To Lex's amusement, Clark had made friends with everyone on his floor - the tenth - as well as the superintendent and the janitor who tended the hallways and mailboxes downstairs.

"Is _anything_ happening on this?" Clark demanded in such a Kal tone of voice that Lex's breath caught. "I hate not knowing what's going on."

"Quite a lot is happening, in fact," Lex said. He settled one hip against the back of the couch that divided the living room from the small kitchen. "I've acquired some information that suggests my father may have murdered my grandparents for insurance money. There's a reporter that I'm attempting to track down. He may have something more conclusive than the circumstantial evidence I've gathered so far. The FBI has gotten involved in tracking the link between my father and Morgan Edge, who has gone into hiding which means we're getting closer to closer to arresting _Dad_ by the day."

Clark sighed and crossed his arms on his chest as he stared out the balcony windows again. He hadn't gone back to his normal for Smallville too-baggy clothing. Kal's too-tight clothing hadn't made a return either. Instead, Clark had requested that Lex bring him button-down shirts and slacks that were yet another sort of camouflage. He looked like a particularly inoffensive nerd. All that was required to complete the disguise was thick black glasses hiding his face.

The continued changes to Clark's appearance shouldn't fascinate Lex. He fully understood the adolescent urge to redefine yourself so that you no longer matched your parents' tastes or style choices. However, that didn't seem to be what Clark was doing. To Lex, it appeared that he was looking for the perfect disguise rather than a more authentic representation of who he was at heart. A few seconds into his observation, Clark twitched uncomfortably.

"Do you miss it?" Lex asked.

"Miss what?" Clark asked without looking at Lex.

"The ring."

This time Clark's head whipped around so that he could stare at Lex in shock. From the look on his face, he couldn't figure out how Lex could have known.

Lex chuckled sadly and shrugged in answer to Clark's unspoken question.

"You're not the only person to go through withdrawal, Clark," Lex said. He raised a hand to stop Clark from protesting. "I know that it wasn't a physical addiction, but the ring did change your behavior quite dramatically. You seemed to be much freer to me, though with much less impulse control. That perception of freedom from consequences is a major reason why anyone gets addicted to a mood-altering substance. That your substance was a meteor rock doesn't change its effect on you."

"And you would know, right?" Clark said with a shaky laugh that revealed his feelings better that his somewhat derisive words.

Lex nodded. "I do. My healing made it virtually impossible for me to be truly addicted, but I did come to depend on the mood alteration when I was in school. It's hard to let go of that crutch. If you wish, I can have a new one made for you. Sometimes using a drug for decreasing periods of time helps decrease your dependence on it."

Clark sighed, the arms crossed on his chest shifting down so that they wrapped around his stomach. He opened his mouth to say something and then shut it again without saying a word. Doubt and worry were clear on Clark's face as he pushed away from the window and came to sit on the couch next to Lex.

"I do miss it," Clark admitted in a tiny, ashamed murmur. "Kal isn't me, but he sort of was, you know? I feel like I've lost something I needed. It's… I shouldn't want it, but God... I... I do I want you to make another ring for me."

"What you had, what you were isn't lost," Lex told Clark. "Kal is a part of you, the piece that you've suppressed and denied, which is understandable given your powers. When you were Kal, Clark was still inside. Now that you're Clark again, you still have Kal within you. The difference is a matter of focus and degree, not quality."

"I've always thought of it as a dark side," Clark said. He stared up Lex as if Lex could offer him the answers to the universe.

Lex snorted as he ran his fingers over Clark's cheek. "It's not a dark side, Clark. It's just another facet of who you are, who you could be in the future. The lack of impulse control was a result of the ring, but the confidence and dominance were all you."

The way that Clark leaned into Lex's hand made the breath catch in Lex's chest again, and Clark seemed to be aware of it. He smiled and caught Lex's arm to tug him down into Clark's lap. While the move was very much something that Kal would have done, the nervous, shy expression was all Clark. Lex chuckled and settled more comfortably in Clark's lap.

He leaned in to press a gentle kiss against Clark's lips. They hadn't gone any farther than this since Jor-El's destruction. Lex was determined to let Clark set the pace, no matter how much he wanted a return to the bedroom for another somewhat-less-bruising round with Clark. For the first time, Clark kissed Lex more deeply as he wrapped his hands around Lex's back and held him there for a long, long time.

"You like it when I'm forceful," Clark whispered after he finally let Lex's lips go.

"I do," Lex admitted though his physical reaction made his enjoyment of it quite clear. "I always have, though my father would have it that Luthors never submit to anyone."

Clark pulled back to stare at Lex with a befuddled expression. "Is he crazy?"

"I've often thought so," Lex chuckled. "Though frankly I would rather not think about Lionel after having been kissed like that."

Clark snickered as he pulled Lex down for even deeper kisses that left Lex panting and desperately wanting more. To his pleased surprise, Clark scooped Lex up in his arms and carried him into the bedroom, settling Lex onto the bed before methodically stripping Lex's clothes off. He pushed Lex's hands away every time Lex tried to return the favor. After the third attempt was silently refused, Lex stopped trying.

Relaxing back on the bed, Lex licked his lips as Clark finished undressing him and started slowly removing his own clothes. Somewhere during his time as Kal, Clark had figured out the trick to making stripping sexy. He did it slowly, watching Lex with eyes that flared red while he opened his shirt button by button. The smooth expanse of chest that Clark revealed was unmarred by the livid brand, which Lex was again relieved had disappeared when Jor-El died.

Lex swore that he could hear the fabric of Clark's shirt slide down his arms and then to the floor, but it was almost certainly imagination given how hard and loud Lex was panting. He grasped himself firmly when Clark's hands went to the button of his slacks. Clark grinned and lowered the zipper just as frustratingly slow.

To Lex's dismay, Clark left the pants hanging on his hips as he toed off his shoes and then slowly crawled up the bed. The view down the lean line of Clark's stomach ended in a shadowed bulge just barely constrained by Clark's pants - an image that Lex tried to brand into his brain for later.

Clark bent and pressed a kiss against Lex's knee, grinning when Lex snorted and wrapped his fingers into Clark's hair. A gentle tug didn't move Clark and only resulted in another kiss against the inside of Lex's thigh. As Clark slowly kissed and nuzzled his way up Lex's legs, Lex tugged at his hair and moaned quietly. It seemed almost sacrilegious to be noisier when Clark was being so quiet.

One of Clark's hands slid up Lex's side and into the center of his chest. He pushed Lex down inexorably, though love and nervousness showed in Clark's still red eyes. Lex went willingly, more than happy to let Clark do whatever he wanted.

What he wanted seemed to be to explore every inch of Lex's torso with his lips and fingers. Where sex with Kal had been urgent and violent, sex with Clark was lovemaking in ways that Lex had previously believed limited to romance writers' fantasies. Clark lavished attention on Lex's body, exploring ways to make him gasp and moan and thrust up against the bulge of Clark's groin.

Somewhere during the kisses, Clark had slid his pants down and only his boxers remained.

"Clark…" Lex moaned when he realized how little separated them.

"Gentle?" Clark asked. "Or harder?"

He caught Lex's wrists and pressed them back against the bed over his head. Lex shouted and nearly came just from that show of dominance. Clark's laugh was a little breathless, but the red gleam in his eyes was full of appreciation as well as lust.

A jerk of motion and Lex found himself on his stomach with Clark draped over him, naked cock nestled along the crease of Lex's ass. He rocked against Lex while biting Lex's shoulder so gently that Lex barely felt the teeth. Lex pushed his shoulder back into Clark's mouth and then whined when he was rewarded with a harder bite. The next bite was harder still and the third was on the verge of agony. When Lex gasped a protest, Clark kissed the spot and moved on, never biting that hard again.

Clark's arms wrapped around Lex's arms, restraining him in a hug that was more effective than any bondage gear he'd worn during his wildest years. The gentle rocking, restraint, and the feel of Clark's teeth against his neck and shoulder, had Lex whimpering so openly that he blushed.

"Lube?" Clark murmured into Lex's ear.

"B-bedside table," Lex replied though his heart seemed determined to get into his throat and block the words.

Clark pulled both lube and a condom from the bedside table. The prep took less time than Clark seemed to want to enjoy, but much longer than Lex was willing to endure. By the time Clark enfolded Lex in his arms again, while slowly settling into Lex's body, Lex was begging in a broken voice that he couldn't believe actually belonged to him.

"Always want to keep you safe," Clark whispered as he held Lex down and somehow managed to nail his prostate with every slow, steady stroke. "Wrap you up, keep you safe. I hate it when you're hurt, when Lionel yells at you. You're so precious, Lex. So very perfect."

"Clark…!" Lex shuddered and twisted his head in an attempt to kiss Clark.

He managed to nuzzle the line of Clark's jaw but that was all. Clark had him so well restrained that all Lex could do was submit to the love he was receiving. Words spilled from Lex's mouth, incomprehensible as the pleasure and painful joy of Clark's love overwhelmed him. There was nothing but Clark, holding him, filling him, whispering words that made Lex want to scream, to laugh, to shout, to cry. The rest of the world disappeared and all that existed, all that could ever exist, was the heat and pressure of Clark Kent holding him tight while rocking deep inside.

Lex dug his toes into the covers and shouted as orgasm overwhelmed him, shuddering and panting through several waves of pleasure. Clark groaned, breath hot against Lex's ear, before pushing Lex's legs further apart and shifting up a bit so that Lex was half lying on the bed and half suspended in the air over Clark's thighs.

"So good," Clark moaned as he pulled Lex up into his lap. "You feel so good when you do that, Lex."

"Clark." The word came out without any conscious intention on Lex's part. "Clark. Clark, Clark, Clark!"

Clark responded by holding Lex to his chest with one hand and gripping Lex's hip in the other, the strength in his fingers making Lex shudder. He gripped Clark's wrists and rocked on Clark, doing his best to encourage Clark to take what he wanted, what he needed and deserved.

Whimpers came from both of them, Lex's broken sheer pleasure and Clark's urgent, needy. It didn't take long before Clark thrust hard and then froze as deep inside of Lex as he could get. Lex shuddered and leaned back against Clark's broad shoulder and, when he turned his head, Clark's lips were there for a kiss that saw them slowly slide back down onto the bed, still wrapped around each other.

"Mmm, wet," Lex complained a few moments later. There was a distinct damp area under his left hip.

"Mmm-hmm," Clark agreed sleepily.

"I am not sleeping on the wet spot," Lex declared as he pushed at Clark's hand. "No matter how wonderful that was, no wet spot."

Clark snickered and helped Lex change the sheets. They crawled back in bed together and Lex smiled as Clark allowed him to cuddle with one arm and leg wrapped over Clark's body. Full darkness had fallen outside, and Lex knew he should go back to his penthouse, to his cold, empty bed, but Lex couldn't bring himself to move.

"It scares me," Clark whispered a few minutes later.

"Sex?" Lex asked, startled out of his doze by Clark's confession.

"No, well yes, no, not really," Clark answered. "More… I'm different, Lex. I'm not the person I was before I blew up the spaceship. I've changed and I don't know if I'll be able to resist my dark side."

"It's not a dark side," Lex huffed. "No more than I have a dark side. We both have impulses to do things that aren't the best choice. That's normal. Everyone has those. Certainly you've changed. You've done things you haven't before, gone places that are new. That's part of growing up, Clark. You also learned things about yourself that you didn't know before. The old Clark might have been lost in transition to this new Clark, but that doesn't mean that the new Clark is a bad person. Even Kal isn't a bad person, though he does have impulse control issues that rival my own, which everyone in Metropolis knows are horrendous."

That made Clark laugh and hug Lex. "You're afraid of yourself, too?"

"Not so much of myself," Lex admitted because the room was dark and Clark nuzzled his scalp too lovingly for staying silent. "I've always been afraid of going insane, Clark. My mother lost her mind as she died. She was never terribly stable, especially after my little brother Julian died. My father's obsessions aren't the hallmark of a sane mind either. I've worried all my life that I'd go insane. Frankly, my rage and impulse control problems… worry me. Unfortunately, most of the time it's after the fact."

"I can understand that," Clark whispered, his lips moving against Lex's forehead this time. "But you also heal, Lex. And maybe what Jor-El did - giving you those powers - will help. Either way, I'll be here and I'll let you know if you're headed in a bad direction."

"And I'll let you know if you're 'going dark'," Lex promised. "Not that I think you will. I think you're going in the right direction, doing the right things. You'll keep growing and changing and become something truly incredible in time, Clark Kent."

Clark shivered then pressed a kiss against Lex's lips without saying anything in reply. They settled down together under the covers. Lex didn't let himself sigh. He wanted to believe that he had nothing to fear from insanity, but it didn't seem likely given his family background. It didn't really matter though.

All that mattered was dealing with his father and Morgan Edge so that Clark would be safe at last.

"Make the ring?" Clark whispered a few minutes of silent snuggling.

"Anything you want, Clark," Lex said and smiled at the kiss he received in return.

+++++

"I have progress to report," Lex said triumphantly as he let himself into Clark's apartment. Between the newly completed red meteor rock in his pocket and the news he had, Lex felt as though he was walking on air again.

"Really?" Clark said. He poked his head out of the kitchen where the delicious smells of bacon, eggs, and possibly pancakes obviously emanated from. "What happened? I thought you were stuck."

"Heh, we were but I finally located Perry White and convinced him to share his information on my father," Lex said as he came over to lean on the peninsula dividing the kitchen from the living room. "He was a gold mine and he's already talking to the FBI. We have enough information to bring my father and Morgan Edge up on charges for murder, counterfeiting, money laundering and a host of other lesser charges. Morgan Edge has been located and is in jail. All we're waiting on now is the warrant for my father's arrest and it will all be over."

"That's great!" Clark said with one of his room-brightening grins. "It's about time. School started a couple of weeks ago. I kind of miss going. Once he's in prison, I'll be able to go back, right?"

"You should be able to, yes," Lex said. "I do wonder why you haven't tested out though. Given your age and that you already know the information being presented, why stay?"

"Chloe and Pete," Clark said and shrugged as he put the latest pancakes onto the monster-sized stack he'd made. Eggs and bacon sat ready for them to enjoy as well. "They're my only friends other than you, Lex. I mean, I know I'm two years older than they are since Mom and Dad held me back, but they are my friends. I want to go through our Junior and Senior years with them if I can."

He brought plates over to the peninsula and casually heated the syrup with his heat vision. Lex chuckled and shook his head at the display of Clark's powers. It was one of the things that he'd come to appreciate in the last couple of weeks. Ever since they had destroyed Jor-El, who didn't seem to be regenerating, Clark had been much more open about what he could do.

They ate their breakfast for dinner meal, discussing how long it would take to arrest Lionel and what the likely timeframe would be for Clark returning to Smallville and his parent's farm. Lex thought it was likely that Clark could be home within the next month, though it might take a little longer than that. Court proceedings never progressed as quickly in real life as they did on TV, much to Clark's dismay. Still, Lex was delighted to see that the brooding and worries that had haunted Clark appeared to have faded away with the news that there was an end in sight.

After they were done eating, which included Clark kissing syrup off of Lex's fingers and getting kissed until they were both panting, they cleaned the kitchen together. The little kitchen was considerably too small for two men their sizes, but Lex couldn't find it in himself to be upset about rubbing shoulders and hips with Clark.

"I um, found something when I ran out to see you in your office today," Clark admitted once they were done.

"You visited?" Lex asked with some surprise as he hadn't been aware of that.

"I tried but you had a board meeting and then there were FBI, so I didn't dare slow down enough to be seen," Clark said. "Sorry, I know I'm supposed to stay here but I get bored. It's hard to stay inside all the time."

"Understandably," Lex said sympathetically even though his heart lurched a little at the thought of Clark being seen or possibly captured. "So what did you find?"

Clark gestured towards the coffee table. When he saw what was there, Lex stumbled badly enough that Clark had to catch him to make sure Lex didn't trip into the sofa. It was the folder full of pictures that documented Clark's transition from small town farm boy to big city thug and possible whore. Lex licked his lips nervously as he cautiously sat down on the sofa with Clark by his side.

"I didn't realize that I was being photographed so much," Clark sounded entirely too calm as he paged through the pictures. "I mean, I knew that there were some security cameras around and that they had to be recording me, but I didn't really get that someone could gather it all up and piece my movements together. It's kind of amazing."

"You're not upset," Lex commented, his voice betraying how stunned he felt by that revelation.

"Hmm?" Clark murmured absently before looking at Lex and then laughing ruefully. "Well, I was at first. But honestly? Seeing this made sense of why you were so upset when I told you that everyone on the bad side of Metropolis knew about my powers. I really had no clue that I was revealing this much. Makes me wonder how much Sheriff Adams knows about me back in Smallville."

"Not as much as she suspects," Lex said as he allowed himself to sag back against the cushions. "Which is its own problem, but we can deal with that later."

"So why did you gather these?" Clark asked.

Lex opened his mouth but nothing coherent presented itself to say so he shut it again while gesturing vaguely towards the balcony windows. Admitting that he had obsessively stalked Clark long before his disappearance to Metropolis wasn't exactly the more intelligent choice but, at some point, Lex knew that he would have to admit that the photos were only a small fraction of the data he'd gathered on Clark.

As Lex fumbled for something to say, Clark watched him with amusement growing in his eyes. He chuckled and scooped Lex up into his lap after a minute that felt like an hour. There wasn't any annoyance in his expression as he pulled Lex in for a kiss that felt like forgiveness.

"Sorry," Lex apologized.

"For what?"

"I think the only appropriate word for what I've been doing is stalking," Lex admitted.

Clark laughed and kissed Lex again while rubbing his hands over Lex's back. He relaxed by inches, taking the comfort that he so desperately wanted, but he couldn't help be afraid it would end once Clark understood the depth of Lex's obsession. By the time Clark let his lips go, Lex wasn't able to worry anymore because most of his brain seemed to have descended straight into his groin.

"Lex, it's not like I didn't realize that you were watching me," Clark whispered against Lex's lips. "I always knew that. Chloe and Pete and Lana and my parents all warned me about it. My only question was why you were doing it and I think I understand and I'm okay. Well, except for feeling a lot of horror that I must have been really obvious to Lionel, too. Your dad gives me the creeps."

Lex laughed and brushed his lips over Clark's before pulling back just enough that he could see Clark's eyes. "Given what I've been able to gather, I'm sure he is quite aware of your differences, Clark. My hope is that he thinks you're a more powerful than usual meteor mutant rather than anything more."

"Mmm-hmm, so why were you gathering these?" Clark asked again.

His expression was curious, hopeful. The pure lack of recrimination gave Lex the strength to say the words he'd strictly forbidden to cross his lips ever since he met Clark Kent on the shore of the Loeb River two years ago.

"I love you," Lex said and wasn't at all ashamed that they came out strange and thick. He'd never meant the words whenever he'd said them before. Saying them with feeling for the first time in his life made Lex feel a bit lightheaded and off balance. "That's the reason for all these. I was worried about you and the pictures were the only connection I had to you."

The admission made Clark's eyes go wide with shock. He stared for a long moment and then Lex found himself half-crushed in a hug that made his bones creak. Rather than protest, Lex clung to Clark just as tightly. If Lex had still had the strength that Jor-El had gifted him with, he would have made it impossible for Clark to let go.

When they finally stopped hugging there were more kisses, sweet, hot kisses filled with little murmurs that Lex thought might be Clark saying that he loved Lex too, but they were so garbled by their lips and tongues tangling that it was impossible to be sure. Lex was sure that absolutely nothing could ruin the moment so, of course, they both jerked apart as the apartment door opened.

"Really Lex, I'm appalled that you would be so off guard," Lionel drawled as he stalked into the room.

"Get out!" Lex snapped.

He rose to force his father out of the apartment but Clark clutched Lex's hand and trembled. Lex looked down and realized that Clark was shuddering in pain, as though his entire body was cramping and his blood was boiling. When Lex looked back up, Lionel was smirking as he pulled a gun from his pocket and aimed it at Lex's heart. On Lionel's finger was a large chunk of green meteor rock, which pulsed and glowed in time with the cramps convulsing Clark's body.

"Do you like it?" Lionel asked as if Lex had admired the ring. "It's quite special, you know. Purified meteor rock. It has the most remarkable protective qualities in the correct circumstances."

"What do you want, Dad?" Lex asked as his heart froze solid. Lionel had to have some sort of scheme already in motion. With Morgan Edge in jail and a warrant about to be issued, Lex should have expected this sort of stupidity from his father. Given his father's target, Lex didn't dare reach into his pocket for the red kryptonite ring. Lionel would assume that Lex was grabbing for a weapon and fire.

"A great many things, Lex," Lionel said. He gestured for Lex to go to the balcony door before tossing another chunk of green meteor rock close to Clark, who shuddered and moaned. "Outside. It's such a pity that I have to do this but it can't be helped. I'm afraid you're about to have a falling out with your farm boy lover, Lex. Such a pity that he discovered that you've been stalking him. I'm sure that the neighbors will be quite appalled to hear that he threw you off the balcony in the subsequent fight and then ran to escape punishment for murder."

"You can't honestly believe that you'll get away with this," Lex said, stalling for time.

He knew that his staff had to be aware that Lionel was here. The monitors and security system that they'd put into Clark's apartment ensured that they would be. If the feed suddenly shut off, they knew to react as if it were a murder attempt. Lionel had less time than he thought, so Lex didn't move as Lionel wanted.

"Now, don't be difficult, Lex," Lionel snarled. His eyes darkened dangerously as his finger settled on the trigger. "Time is fleeting. Be a good boy and go to the railing."

"If I refuse?" Lex snapped at him.

Lionel turned and shot Clark in the leg. Clark screamed and clutched the bleeding wound. The moment of distraction gave Lex the chance to charge at Lionel. They crashed into the balcony's sliding glass door as they wrestled for the gun. Lex couldn't give the struggle everything he had knowing that he needed to get the red meteor rock ring to Clark as quickly as possible. The combination of the two types of rock might cripple Clark but, if they were lucky, the red also might mitigate the effects of the green.

Just as Lex pulled the little ring box out of his pocket, Lionel smashed the butt of his gun against Lex's temple. Lex toppled back against the glass and then onto the floor as it abruptly shattered under the impact. As he fell, he tossed the box at Clark, managing to hit Clark in the chest with it to his surprise.

"The ring!" Lex shouted to Clark.

"You always were a sentimental little weakling, Lex," Lionel shouted as he grabbed Lex and hit him twice more in the face with the butt of his gun. When Lex sagged, stunned by the impacts, Lionel smirked down at him. "I need that boy's liver, Lex. It's a pity that I couldn't use yours. It would have been so appropriate for me to pluck it out for my own use."

The world spun dizzyingly around Lex. He could see the gun on the floor of the balcony, which meant that both of Lionel's hands were on Lex but, between the ache in his head and the way the world spun every time Lionel jerked Lex, it was impossible to do anything more than grab his father's arms and try not to let go.

"Off you go," Lionel said.

He lifted and then shoved Lex over the balcony railing, hoisting one of Lex's legs over and then the next despite Lex's weak shouts and the way he clung to Lionel's arms. The world spun and dropped away from Lex's feet then he was hanging in space, clinging to the railing while Lionel hammered at Lex's face and arms to make him let go.

"No!" Clark shouted and smashed into Lionel's back. There was a moment where it seemed as though nothing was going to happen, but then the screws holding the railing to the building screeched and the entire thing gave way under their combined weight. Lex watched as Lionel screamed - probably something profane -while flailing in the air toward the detaching railing. Lionel's fingers missed, sending him tumbling towards the street ten stories below.

"Lex!"

Clark grabbed Lex's arms and hauled him up onto the balcony's concrete. He was shaking as badly as Lex was, and both of them started as the railing finally gave way completely and fell down to the street after Lionel. As Lex's heart rate slowly dropped, he realized that he could hear Clark's neighbors out on their balconies, shouting about a fight and someone jumping. There were police sirens on the street below, which probably meant that the neighbors had called the police the instant Lionel and Lex began fighting on the balcony.

"Sir!" Andre burst through the door to the apartment with a squad of LexCorp security guards as well as a small flood of police officers. He stared around the room and then at Lex and Clark huddled together on the balcony. "What happened?"

"He…" Lex started to say. He stopped, swallowed hard and then straightened up despite the pounding in his head. "My father came in and tried to throw me off the balcony. He wanted to kidnap Clark and take his liver for some reason. He's been behaving strangely for ages, but I didn't realize that he was physically ill."

"What the hell?" one of the cops muttered.

"He shot Clark," Lex said. "He needs medical care."

"So do you!" Clark huffed. "You should see yourself, Lex. He really beat you up. I just got a scratch. It's nothing serious." The red meteor rock ring on Clark's finger pulsed slightly as if to remind Lex of its effects, though it didn't glow brightly like the green meteor rock in the living room had.

Andre let out a slow breath, scanning the living room much more intently this time. He spotted the piece of meteor rock by the sofa and frowned. As the police milled around, checking the apartment for any more threats, Andre walked over to Lex and Clark. Along the way, one of his feet _accidentally_ kicked the meteor rock out to the the balcony and then over the edge.

"I'll call Toby," Andre said as he knelt by their sides. "I would strongly suggest resting, Mr. Luthor. The investigation will likely take quite a while."

"Ask the neighbors what they heard," Clark suggested. "They're always really nosy and most of them leave their balcony doors open during the day."

"An excellent suggestion," Andre said. He nodded discreetly at Clark's thigh, which had clearly healed under the bloody pant leg. "You should come away from the edge and do your best to keep Lex still. Head wounds can be quite nasty."

"I'm fine," Lex complained, even though he clearly was anything but fine.

He complained a little bit, just enough to satisfy his image, and then let Clark hold him as the police did their investigation of the apartment. By the time they got around to asking what injuries Clark and Lex had, Toby was there and he'd already bandaged the 'wound' on Clark's thigh.

"Minor," Toby said dismissively. "Lex's head's a mess but Clark got off pretty easily. I need to get them to proper medical care. You can ask questions later. Not like Lex's very coherent right now."

Lex grumbled at Toby but didn't try to deny it. As much as his head hurt, he didn't feel coherent at all. They finally obtained permission to leave from the police. Andre and Toby cleared a path - Andre with the file full of photos in his hand -and Clark supported Lex as they made their way out of the building and into the waiting limo.

"It's over, isn't it?" Clark asked once they'd pulled away from the curb.

"Mmm, mostly," Lex mumbled. He put his head on Clark's shoulder and basked in the warmth that Clark radiated, but then noticed that the red meteor rock ring was still on Clark's finger. "Off. Take the ring off, Clark. Please."

It didn't surprise Lex that Clark's shoulders went stiff but, a couple of moments later, he pulled off the ring and tossed it to Andre, who tucked it into his pocket without comment. Lex smiled and finally allowed his eyes to shut.

The endless dance of dominance between Lex and Lionel was over. Morgan Edge had been arrested. Jor-El was nothing more than a pile of rubble. Although everything wasn't entirely back to normal, Lex thought that maybe they'd have a chance to move on. As Lex felt sleep creeping up, he couldn't help but wonder where the next challenge would come from.

Lex breathed a sigh of relief as he turned down the lane that led to the Kent's farm. He was rather amused that he still was relieved to see that the farm was intact. One week had passed since his father's death, but it felt more like a year. The storm cellar had been buried since Lex's last visit. Fresh grass had sprouted over the top of it as Jonathan had apparently decided to completely cover it this time. As he pulled up to Jonathan's old truck and got out of his car, Lex spotted Jonathan coming over.

He didn't look pleased to see Lex but that probably had more to do with the fact that Lex's relationship with Clark had become public knowledge. Clark had refused to hide it after returning to Smallville, despite some rather nasty teasing that came close to gay bashing without ever crossing the line as far as the law was concerned. Lex and Clark had talked many times over the last week, though only over the phone. Toby had flatly refused to allow Lex to go back to Smallville until his injuries had completely healed.

The police questioning had been horrific until the silent security camera footage from the balcony camera showed the entire encounter. Explaining that Lex had had the ring made for Clark had resulted in a few snickers about odd things to do at the last minute before dying, but that hardly mattered. What mattered to Lex was that particular camera hadn't shown Clark's reaction to the either type of meteor rock.

With Lionel dead and Morgan Edge firmly in prison, as well as Jor-El (so far) still shut down, being cleared by the police meant that Clark was safe at last.

"Lex," Jonathan said just stiffly enough to remind Lex that he still hated the last name Luthor but not so stiffly that Lex felt like he needed to apologize and leave.

"Mr. Kent," Lex said and nodded to him. "I hope things have been going well."

"Pretty well," Jonathan said and glanced toward the house, where Martha was waving through the kitchen window. He smiled and waved back, as did Lex. "She's finally getting her appetite back. The doctor thinks we might be over the hump."

"Good," Lex said brightly enough that Jonathan chuckled at him. "I'm glad."

Jonathan nodded agreement and then looked at Lex with enough wry amusement that Lex's cheeks went red. "Clark's in the barn. Go on in. He hasn't talked about anything but you since he got back."

Lex nodded and walked to the barn feeling his blush creeping up over his scalp. It was a very strange feeling to have any level of approval from Jonathan Kent, let alone his permission for a relationship with Clark. When Lex started up the steps to the loft, Clark appeared at the top of the stairs and grinned down at Lex, which hurried Lex's steps so much that he all but ran up the last few.

They didn't speak. Clark enfolded Lex in a hug that was a hair too firm. Lex didn't care; he clung to Clark and breathed in the scent of hay, farm animals, and that bit of wonderfulness that was Clark Kent's scent. Safe in Clark's arms, Lex felt like his head finally stopped spinning. He'd been off balance mentally ever since his father's attack in Clark's apartment, not that Lex had admitted it to anyone.

"Missed you," Clark murmured.

"Yes. So much."

When Clark's arms started to relax as if he was about to let Lex go, Lex grumbled and hugged him harder. That made Clark laugh and brush his lips over Lex's scalp. They drifted up into the air, Clark's arms easily supporting Lex's weight, then they settled down together on the couch. Lex laughed into Clark's shoulder, even though he debated whether he should be cheering that Clark had managed to fly or scolding him for doing it where people might see him.

"Flying?" Lex asked once they'd found a comfortable position together.

"Well, more like floating," Clark said. "It's really hard."

"Odd, I found it quite simple," Lex commented, laughing when Clark grumbled at him. "You'll figure it out, Clark. It's only a matter of time."

"Time," Clark said and the word held enough serious intent that Lex pulled back and studied Clark's face. "I don't have enough time right now, Lex. There's school."

"You're eighteen, Clark," Lex replied. "If you want you can test out. If not, then so be it. What's so urgent that you have to do it now?"

There was a shy smile in Clark's eyes when he sat up and pressed a gentle kiss against Lex's lips. One hand brushed against Lex's cheek, down his neck and settled onto Lex's shoulder. He could feel the strength in that hand, reminding Lex of Kal, but it was restrained, which was all Clark.

Clark pulled back and reached over to pick up a sketch pad covered with symbols from the Kawatche Caves. Most of them Lex recognized from the no-longer-hidden inner room. There were translations under the symbols, first into what looked to be a phonetic rendition of the symbols and then into English under that. A lot of the English translations had been erased multiple times. The paper looked frayed in those spots.

"You've been translating it," Lex breathed.

"I've been trying to," Clark said, shaking hid head. "Some of it doesn't make a lot of sense. It's all metaphorical and confusing. But there are some things I'm pretty sure of."

He flipped pages and showed Lex a page that had a sketch of what appeared to be a crystal followed by several lines of text that had been translated into English. This was written in ink, which Lex thought must mean that Clark was confident of his translation.

"Elements of Power?" Lex asked.

"Mmm-hmm," Clark said. "From what I've been able to figure out, they're artifacts left behind by previous generations that hold all sorts of knowledge and technology from my home world. They're hidden somewhere on Earth and just need to be found. There are a bunch of warnings about terrible things happening if they fall into the wrong hands. I mean, really horrific things, end of the world things. So I've been thinking that I need to find them first. I can't really do that if I'm still in school."

Lex nodded as he read over the translated warnings from the inner cave. They did sound like end of the world consequences. He smiled and passed the sketchpad back to Clark. It was a new direction for Clark to go in and a much better one in Lex's opinion. Better taking responsibility for the past and his actions rather than running away, getting high, or hiding from the world.

"Whatever you choose to do, I'll support you, Clark," Lex said. "If you want, I can certainly contribute to the effort. I do have a great many more resources than you do."

Clark grinned. "I was hoping you'd say that. Mom and Dad didn't really like it when I said that I was thinking of leaving school early but they understood my reasoning. I'm free from Jor-El, but there's still so much I have to learn about myself. You're free from Lionel finally. I thought…"

His voice trailed off as Clark's cheeks went blazingly red.

"Yes?" Lex asked.

"Um, maybe we could… be partners?" Clark suggested hesitantly. "It's just… I know that between the two of us we can handle anything that comes at us."

He looked like he was going to continue with more unnecessary explanations so Lex put a finger over Clark's lips. Clark jerked then smiled and kissed the tip of Lex's finger. Lex laughed and allowed himself to cup Clark's face in his hand. His thumb brushed over the blush staining Clark's cheek, intensifying it briefly.

Clark smiled and pulled Lex in for another kiss. It started with laughter then became so tender that Lex thought his heart might burst out of his chest. The explosion of joy in his heart far surpassed the one that had destroyed Clark's spaceship. Lex leaned into Clark's embrace. No matter what had been lost in the transition from friends to lovers; family, innocence, all that remained of Clark's birth father, Lex couldn't regret what had happened. Lex had ended up with more than he'd ever dreamed was possible, and the future promised even more. Once Clark finally released Lex's lips , he leaned back to meet Clark's eyes.

"You can stop trying to convince me, Clark," Lex said and smirked, or at least tried to. He suspected that the curve of his lips appeared much more tender and shy than smirking. "You had me at partners."

"Good," Clark whispered and pulled Lex back in. "You already gave me a ring. Someday, I'll give you one too, Lex. A very special one."

"Someday," Lex agreed. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Now tell me all about these Elements. What are they, what do we know, and how do we track them down before anyone else does?"

Clark's delighted grin set off more of those explosions of joy inside of Lex's heart. Shifting Lex a little to the side, Clark picked up the sketchbook and flipped several pages.

"Well, it's not really clear where they are, but the cave writings said that there are markers we can look for…."

The End


End file.
